Though it lacks the sun and sand of well-established medical tourism hubs mainly in Asia, Serbia is well positioned close to the EU, with high standards of treatment, the country’s economic ministry told AFP recently.

Stronger investments, however, were needed in order to offer services that would fully satisfy the demands of foreign tourists, the ministry’s representatives added.

For the time being, private clinics are at the forefront of the initiative to attract foreigners with cheaper medical treatment, the publication wrote, while public hospitals are presently unable to offer such services, due to the obsolete infrastructure and outdated equipment.

Private medical establishments are contacting tourism officials and economic experts from various ministries. According to Doctor Ivana Vranic, one of the promoters of the initiative, the plan is to offer patients who come to Serbia surgery or other medical services while presenting them other benefits, like discovering the country’s sites or visiting its numerous thermal spas.

While Serbia’s first medical tourists were members of the country’s large migrant community worldwide, who sought cheaper treatment during family visits to Serbia, word of the reasonable prices and good services eventually spread to other foreigners as well.

The initiative is helped by the fact that Serbia, and the Balkans as a whole, are leaving behind their negative image, stemming from the wars in the 1990s. “The fear of the Balkans is beginning to disappear and we now have the same status as other clinics in the world,” Doctor Milan Radivojevic of the private clinic Medical Centar in Belgrade, told the publication.

Serbia is following in the footsteps of other countries in the region who are trying to attract tourists not just with sites and beaches, but with the offers of cheaper, yet high-quality medical services. As BalkanTravellers.com reported last year, Bulgaria and Romania were increasingly attracting foreigners with offers for affordable quality dental care, sometimes combined with a beach holiday or a trip to Dracula’s castle. Turkey, on the other hand, was marketing cheaper laser-eye surgeries, combined with a sightseeing tour of Istanbul, to foreign tourists.

Source: BalkanTravellers.com