November 5, 2020 – At the Adriatic Region Investment Forum held yesterday in Zagreb Hotel Westin, participants discussed health and wellness tourism opportunities in Croatia and the Adriatic region.
As part of the fourth Adriatic Region Investment Forum for Health, Sports, and Tourism, held yesterday at the Westin Hotel in Zagreb, numerous potentials of Croatia and the entire Adriatic region were presented as year-round health tourism destinations.
Under the new circumstances, panelists and lecturers were filmed in a set-up studio in the hall of the Westin Hotel, and the forum could be followed online.
Projects of new tourist capacities
Of course, the topic of the coronavirus pandemic and the new circumstances that it brought in health tourism could not have been avoided. Dr. Prem Jagyasi (India-UAE), one of the world’s most important experts and promoters in health tourism, gave a lecture on integrating wellness programs into the global health and medical tourism industry and was also joined by Dr. Lutz Lungwitz, President of the German Association of Medical Wellness, Emin Cakmak, founder of the Global Healthcare Travel Council from Turkey, and Dr. Jeana Havidich from the USA (Association of Croatian American Professionals).
The presentation of the prepared projects is a special feature of this Investment Forum, and several projects of new hospitals and other health and tourism capacities in Croatia and the region have been offered, as well as large health tourist resorts.
A synergy of rural and health tourism
The panel “Food as a resource in tourism” provoked an interesting discussion in which the multidisciplinary nature of the participants enabled possible new directions for the development of rural areas in Croatia. The synergy of rural and health tourism can strengthen the production, but also the settlement of rural areas, especially in the next financial period (2021-2027) in which such development will be encouraged, especially if it is set as one of the strategic developments of the Republic of Croatia.
Tugomir Majdak, State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Marcel Medak (President of the Health Tourism Association of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce), Assistant Professor Sanja Music Milanovic (HZJZ), Zeljko Ivancevic (Consultant – ECS Brussels), and John Raffetto (American Adriatic Health Ltd, Washington DC) participated in this panel.
AI in health and rural tourism
Another interesting panel entitled “Challenges of the application of artificial intelligence in health and rural tourism” is the work of experts from the company Infodom, which was the main sponsor of the Forum this year. About this interesting and instructive topic through the application of new technologies, Hrvoje Sagrak, President of the Management Board of Infodom, Ph.D. Silvana Tomić Rotim, director of the Croatian Institute for Informatics, Mislav Malenica, president of the CRO.AI association, and prof.dr.sc.Slavko Vidović, a founder of Infodom, gave their opinions.
Source: Adriatic Region Investment Forum
Sports and health infrastructure
In previous years, the topic of sports was opened at the Forum as part of what is important for the branding of Croatia, and this year again one of the panels is dedicated to this topic. The intention was to emphasize the need for sports infrastructure as a basis to be able to brand sports potential in various sports in which Croatia achieves above-average results.
Sports infrastructure, including human resources, is a strong basis for fitting the sports offer into the overall year-round tourism offer. The last, but very interesting and energetic panel entitled “Sports and health infrastructure in the branding of sustainable tourism” was attended by Ranko Ćetković, Assistant Secretary General of the COC, prof.dr.sc. Igor Jukić, Ph.D. Miljenko Bura and a pioneer of the health industry, prim.dr. Vlasta Brozičević from Terme Selce.
Terms and circumstances of investing in Croatia
The investment forum was opened by the envoy of the Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, State Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports Tonči Glavina, and introductory speeches were given by the envoy of the Mayor of Zagreb Milan Bandić, Ana Pandža Kunčević, Violetta Yanshevskaja (who spoke from Kiev), President of Global Healthcare Travel Council, and the main organizer dr.sc. Miljenko Bura.
Some of the main names on the list of speakers are dr.sc. Jakša Puljiz (Institute for Development and International Relations), Tonči Glavina, State Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, Šime Erlić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds, Jurica Mateša from the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, and John Gašparac (PWC Croatia), who also moderated an interesting and informative panel which discussed the stimulating conditions and circumstances of investing in Croatia.
Special emphasis was placed on the topicality of “European” money, which must contribute to faster achievement of strategic goals of the National Development Strategy of the Republic of Croatia until 2030. Invitation and messages were sent to interested investors to create preconditions for intensive investment in the next ten years.
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