Development trends and territorial organization of the medical tourism market in Russia

Anatolii I. Chistobaev, Nikolai A. Grudtsyn, Zoia A. Semenova, Evgeniy S. Kulakovskiy

Abstract


The article discusses the current state of affairs and issues related to the Russian medical tourism market. It is shown that medical tourism, as a component of health tourism, involves the organised travel of potential patients to medical clinics outside their country or region to receive qualified medical assistance at reasonable prices. Based on data from the global ranking of countries in medical tourism, it is established that Russia has achieved certain successes in the development of this sector of the green economy in the service industry over a relatively short period, but at the same time, there are numerous problems requiring resolution. The use of interdisciplinary and socio-geographical scientific approaches and methods has revealed modern challenges and risks in medical tourism, outlining strategic directions for its development, including for typical groups of Russian regions, megacities, and resort complexes. The dominant role of medical institutions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and several other regional centre cities of the Russian Federation has been identified. Vector priorities for outbound medical tourism, including a shift in the interest of Russian citizens from European destinations to Southeast Asian ones while maintaining the role of Israel and certain European countries, have been determined. The formation of medical tourism clusters in regions and cities under conditions of public-private partnership is recommended. The strategic directions for the development of model groups of regions are proposed.

Key words: medical assistance, tourist flows, health services, medical clinics, strategic planning

© 2024 Serbian Geographical Society, Belgrade, Serbia.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Serbia.



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