Source: Novi list

The result of the three-year cooperation between the Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster and ACAP should be the development of integrated and personalized well-being and wellness programs in Croatia, which would be offered to the American market in the spring of 2023.

When, three years ago, the Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster received an invitation from the Association of Croatian American Professionals (ACAP), an international network that brings together experts, entrepreneurs and scientists from various branches who are from Croatia or have Croatian roots, and who live and work in the USA, to participate in their annual conference in Cleveland and present the possibilities of Croatia, and thus of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, in the field of health tourism and the health industry, an interesting story of cooperation began, the result of which should be the creation of integrated and personalized wellbeing and wellness programs in Croatia for the American market. With these programs, the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, and then Croatia as a whole, should position itself on the US market as a top international destination for health and quality of life.

Intensified activities

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily slowed down activities, they have been intensified again this year. In June, at the annual ACAP conference in New York, an agreement was signed between the Association of Croatian-American Professionals and the Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster, which marked the beginning of a new joint pilot project based on a study that was instigated by ACAP, and after a several-week stay in Croatia at the end of 2019, made by graduate students from Tuck Dartmouth University. The study examines the possibilities of cooperation between the USA and Croatia in the field of health tourism and is based on an analysis of the needs of the American market on the one hand, and the potential of Croatia on the other.

But what are the real potentials of Croatia, more precisely the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, and an eight-member team came to “investigate” last week, led by Dr. Steven Pavletic, medical oncologist, clinical researcher and head of department at the National Institute for Cancer Research of the NIH Clinical Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, and president of ACAP. Along with him, the team included another doctor, Dr. Jeana Havidich of Dartmouth-Hitchcock University Medical Center and vice-chair of ACAP’s Special Task Force on Medical Tourism, which brings together individuals related to health – doctors, lawyers, health professionals, business people, a person from the administration, who played an important role in creating the pilot program on which this cooperation is based.

Multidisciplinary team

In addition to them, according to Dr. Pavletic, the carefully selected multidisciplinary team included a nutritionist, a specialist in wellness programs, a specialist in managing homes for the elderly, a specialist in medical ethics, and the owner of a travel agency that already brings guests to Croatia from of the USA, a specialist in the so-called “hospitality” (accommodation and organization of guest activities), but also a lawyer specialized in the legal problems of American regulation in health care, whose role is also very significant in the health-tourism industry, which, since it is closely related to medical services, is exposed to various risks.

– So, we are talking about a multidisciplinary team made up of people who are successful in their field of activity, and who are not all members of ACAP, nor related to the creation of the pilot project, and some of them do not even have anything to do with Croatia, in terms of origin, explains Dr. Pavletic, adding that the plan for this stay was defined for a year, and the initial step was a survey among ACAP members, 2,300 of them with various professional and personal profiles who live in different areas of the USA.

– The result of the survey showed interest in such programs, mostly lasting seven to ten days, so we designed this stay based on that, in cooperation with members of the Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster, says Dr. Pavletic.

The team stayed in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County for five working days and, as our interlocutor explains, they wanted to see and experience as much as possible of what this region has to offer – from active walks, culinary experiences to visits to top medical and wellness institutions, all with the aim of getting as much information as possible.

A varied program

– Upon arrival, the program included viewing the possibilities of Gorski kotar, i.e. Fužine, then the area of Opatija and finally the area of Crikvenica and Selce. Three medical institutions were included in the whole program – Thalassotherapia Opatija, Thalassotherapia Crikvenica and Terme Selce, the accommodation was in the Hotel Ambasador in Opatija and Hotel Katarina in Selce, and the whole program was additionally conceived by Kvarner Region Tourist Board, Opatija TB and Crikvenica TB. All these institutions are members of the Cluster, so we prepared it together and agreed with the members of ACAP. There were caterers and tour guides who made it possible to get to know cultural-historical and natural sights, which is also one of the important segments of the future package, which is primarily health-related, but basically health-tourism. In the medical sense, the emphasis was on preventive programs, while the hoteliers in the facilities where they were located offered spa and wellness programme, and the restaurateurs prepared dishes specific to this region and based on local ingredients, complemented by an enological segment so that the team members could get a complete experience, we learn from Dr. Vladimir Mozetič, president of the Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster. According to him, the program was completely based on their research and sought to highlight the specifics of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar region.

Data processing

stay about what this region can offer and their impressions are generally good.

– We are very satisfied with what we have learned. The first impression is that all the elements exist, but there is a large area where we now have to activate and formulate it into an offer, says Dr. Pavletic, explaining that at the end of each day they had one-hour briefings during which they documented everything they saw and learned that day.

– When we return to the US, we must first organize the information collected on the basis of studiously prepared questionnaires, rank all the elements and see what can enter the program and what cannot, and what is possibly missing. This is a big job, because we are talking about experts from different fields, with different perspectives, whose impressions and observations, as well as solid, scientifically based facts, we must now systematize into a unique program that will highlight what constitutes an authentic Croatian experience in the field of healthy living medicine and determine specific parameters that will show what is important in a group and what is important in an individual approach to guests from the USA, says Dr. Havidich, emphasizing that the goal is not only to create a tourist package, but also to develop a plan and strategy for the future, based on scientific verifiable data.

In addition to the American team that will prepare its working material, the hosts from the Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster will also make their analysis, and then together they will put it together into a final program that will be offered on the American market from the spring of 2023, first among ACAP members and their families. In the next year, according to Dr. Pavletic, the plan is to bring two or three groups, and then they plan to promote this offer among a much wider target group of Americans who want to come and get to know Croatia and at the same time do something for their health.

– Americans really like to come to Croatia, they come to enjoy the beauty of nature, food, everything that Croatia has to offer, but it is tourism that does not have that conscious component about health, which we are trying to include in this program of ours. We want them to feel all its benefits for their health during their stay in Croatia, but also to learn something about it and take that knowledge back to America. It is a program for people who are ready to change something in their lives, says Dr. Pavletic, adding that there is no such type of service in Croatia, and such a scientifically based offer is not very common in the world either, so it is a kind of pioneering step.

Model for Croatia

– Our goal is to test and define such programs in the area of Kvarner, i.e. the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, but then to replicate it, with all local modifications, in other Croatian regions as well, for which there is already interest. But it was most logical to start here because of the tradition and all the possibilities it offers, points out Dr. Pavletic, emphasizing again that the goal is to apply it throughout Croatia. This is confirmed by Dr. Mozetič, who hopes that the model from Kvarner, i.e. the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, will be successful and that it will be possible to replicate it in other regions in Croatia, stressing that the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the Ministry of Health and CNTB are also familiar with this program. The general public will be introduced with this programme in July next year when ACAP will organize their annual conference, for the first time in Zagreb.