Georgia’s Perspectives in Medical Tourism – Challenges, Barriers in Healthcare Sector

Abstract

In the last decade, medical tourism industry captured particular interest of the whole world. The established trend of this century medical tourism is the reversed flow of medical tourists from developed to developing countries, more regional movements and emergence of regional hubs that strategically cater services to potential customers in proximity. Experts of the field forecast great perspectives in medical tourism for Georgia. Georgia’s healthcare sector is indeed competitive in number of medical services. At the present time, medical tourism is in the development stage, in Georgia. The objective of conducted research was to identify barriers hindering medical tourism development and existing challenges in Georgia and to elaborate recommendations, accordingly. For this purpose, narrative review was performed utilizing various scientific article bases. In total, 160 articles were found and among them 140 were counted to be relevant. In line with the research goals, 37 semi-structured, deep interviews were conducted - with top management of private clinics, with representatives of local and international medical tourism facilitator companies, with government officials from Ministry of Healthcare, tourism department and others. Results were processed and analyzed using NVIVO software. According to the results of the research, to develop medical tourism direction, in Georgia, it is necessary to position and promote country as a medical tourism destination, globally. It is important to strengthen role of the government and increase its engagement in this direction. Government needs to develop and implement strategy for medical tourism development and combine efforts of various stakeholders around this goal. Another recommendation concerns quality of medical care and need for standardization of services and processes in medical facilities. For this reason, intensifying control and regulations over medical quality is needed from government’s side. Moreover, international accreditation and affiliation with international medical chains is suggested.