DEVELOPMENT OF DENTAL TOURISM IN CROATIA.

Health tourism is a form of tourism in which an individual temporarily changes his or her place of residence to a more favourable climate or bathing location for preventive, curative or rehabilitative health care. There are three forms of health tourism: wellness, curative tourism and medical tourism. Medical tourism entails organised travelling for improvement of human health through certain medical interventions. It occurs mostly in medical offices, clinics and hospitals. Dental tourism is a form of medical tourism and it entails the travelling of a patient from the home country to obtain a dental health service. The analysis of all aspects related to the sector of dental tourism in Croatia reveals the direction of development of dental tourism in Croatia. This paper shows how dental tourism is involved in the marketing mix through its four main components. It considers ethical and safety issues which are very important in providing such services. Based on the analysis and the conducted research, one can conclude that Croatia has the necessary prerequisites for this kind of tourism. This paper presents the development of dental tourism, analysis of possibilities and factors which affect the development of dental tourism in Croatia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]