Trade with Greece
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tourism in Greece through the
implementation of targeted
policies are very good, as the
country’s tourism “product”
enjoys significant compara-
tive advantages:
● An excellent climate, suit-
able for all-around-the-year
tourism, fascinating land-
scapes and many areas that
feature various tourist attrac-
tions.
● Top quality food.
● Many excellent hotels, with excess
capacity.
● Many physicians, specialized in Greek and for-
eign universities and assisted by properly
trained medical staff.
● Top-notch public and private hospitals and clin-
ics, fitted out with state-of-the-art medical
equipment, many of which are underutilized as
a result of increased hospital bed vacancy
rates.
Other advantages include the high quality and
low cost of medical care, as well as the
favourable spatial allocation of medical capacity,
since:
● Many –mainly public and usually newly-built–
hospitals are located in areas of great interest
for tourists (Crete, Rhodes, Nafplion, Patras,
Kalamata, Volos etc.).
● Both Athens and Thessaloniki (the country’s
capital and second-largest city, respectively),
which are capable of offering specialized terti-
ary hospital services in critical sectors (trans-
plantations, heart surgery etc.), are also his-
toric cities with museums featuring unique
exhibits, and monuments from all historical
periods (Antiquity, Byzantium, Middle Ages).
Apart from that, Greece lies on the crossroads of
three continents, a fact that facilitates the access
of huge numbers of medical tourists, has well-
developed tourism infrastructures (road and rail-
way network, many airline routes, ports etc.),
while is considered totally safe and has estab-
lished a good name abroad as a general tourism
destination.
The development of medical tourism in Greece
requires the elimination of all relevant obstacles,
through initiatives based on the cooperation
among the competent ministries, as well as tar-
geted interventions by public and
private sector entities (tourist
enterprises and medical
service providers).
More specifically, it is
considered neces-
sary to:
●
Create
a
favourable institu-
tional
environ-
ment,
which
requires the enact-
ment of a special
law on medical
tourism, covering the
relevant legal vacuums
and eliminating all existing
ambiguities (the relevant draft
law will be soon tabled to Parliament).
● Streamline Greek legislation and align it with
the medical tourism-related EU directive on
cross-border healthcare (the relevant draft law
will be soon tabled to Parliament).
The prospects
regarding the
growth of medical
tourism in Greece
through the implementation of
targeted policies are very
good, as the country’s
tourism “product” enjoys
significant comparative
advantages
“
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