The 8 th Crikvenica International Health Tourism Conference held on 12 th and 13 th November 2020 discussed post-Covid health travel and confirmed that Croatia is ready for post-Covid patients. Once again, CIHT was successfully organized by Crikvenica Tourist Board and Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster, and the co-organizers – Thalassotherapia Crikvenica and Polyclinic Terme Selce. The first virtual edition of the conference achieved over three thousand views. “Croatia’s strategic focus is on further developing health tourism, which has great potential for year-round tourism activity. Besides, Croatia has all the important comparative advantages for this tourism segment.” announced the Minister of Tourism and Sport, Nikolina Brnjac. The panelists discussed the effects of the pandemic, the current market situation, arising practices and opportunities in health travel, promotion and communication, and post- Covid times. “It is essential to promote the possibilities and quality of health tourism in the Kvarner region, but also in Croatia as a whole, through such international conferences. I believe that in the future, health tourism will become one of the most profitable tourism segments in Croatia.” – pointed out Prof. Ivan Đikić during the keynote presentation. HTI Managing Director Leila Krešić-Jurić presented the Croatian health tourism offer that perfectly matches European health travelers’ needs and expectations for post-covid recovery and numerical indicators in Croatian health travel. Following available research data from 2019, estimations show that Croatia gets over 900,000 visitors looking for health and well- being, producing EUR 585 million turnovers. The 9 th CIHT Conference will be held in Crikvenica, 4 th -5 th November 2021, while the recordings of the 2020 edition are available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQKMt1DBH1U&t=13s (Day 1) as well as at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I_JPabAEeM (Day 2).
Assistant Minister Monika Udovičić, HTI Managing Director Leila Krešić-Jurić, Kvarner Health Cluster Director Alfred Franković
