Swedes are one of the most mobile nationality in Europe. For several years ago people started to combine leisure travelling with medical background, e.g. surgeries, beauty and dental treatments or spa/wellness tourism, that were a lot cheaper than in Sweden. The boom started with cosmetic and plastic surgery, savings on the treatment abroad (in Thailand or Malaysia) could reach 60 per cent. For the potential Swedish woman (because men are still the margin in this case), for whom good health and good looking is a priority, the possibility to fix her looks while having a vacation is worth of consideration when making holiday plans. But, not everyone has so much time to travel so long, not enough resources, and not everyone wants to experience culture differences or different bacterial flora, while the organism is weakened after the surgery. That is why Poland became so popular – geographical proximity, low treatment prices, high service quality and low-cost airlines connections between Swedish and Polish main cities. Former patients mention also about better language communication between them and a polish staff.
A bit of history
The history of wellness tourism in Sweden begun with a cult of well water drinking. Around 350 different health resorts was established in the end of 18th century. In the 19th century well water culture grows to seaside bathing resorts, especially in Halland, Bohuslän and Skåne. Quite specific in 19th century was Northern Sweden’s ‘kallvattenkuranstalter’ – cold-water sanatorium in Haparanda, Finnborg, Kullstaberg and Sundsvall. It turned out rather fast that bathing in icy cold water has actually no medicinal meaning and sanatorias were visited mainly by residents of surrounding villages and local enthusiasts.
In Northern Europe, because of the lack of natural healing assets and tradition, people do not tend to believe in or trust the beneficial impacts of medical waters. This results in health and wellness (tourism) being based on relaxation and mainly includes fitness services, massages, (fun) baths with hot water and saunas. However, the first bath of the North (Malmtorgsbadet and Sturebadet) was initiated in Stockholm by a medical doctor Carl Curman in 1885 to meet the ‘desperately needed swimming, exercise and a road to better health’. In Nordic countries the sauna often represents an integral part of everyday life (especially in Finland) rather than being a luxury that is associated with wellness programmes. It is well-known that Nordic people have a generally healthy attitude to life and many of the fitness activities, which are part of everyday life (e.g. Nordic walking), have now been exported to wellness centres and spas all over the world.
Numbers and statistics
According to European Union’s statistics in 2005, about 20 000 Swedes received planned or unplanned care in another Member State: 157 individuals applied to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency for authorization beforehand for planned treatment abroad; 1050 patients claimed reimbursement for planned health care abroad. In 2000 the Swedish authorities stated that they received only few applications for treatment abroad. In 2002, six applications were made under E112 and all were refused.
Resurs AB and the Travel & Tourist Data Base (TDB) states that the number of trips abroad with overnight stays rose by 11.5 percent in 2010. This represented a strong recovery for travel abroad after a similarly large decline (12%) in 2009. 2.2 million of the 13 million trips abroad with overnight stays by Swedes in 2010 were business trips, while 10.8 million were leisure trips, 100 000 Swedes has been travelling for medical purposes. It still remains unknown, which direction patients are choosing to go in as it does not exist any register about this issue in Sweden.
According to the Polish Tourism Organization the total number of hotel nights booked by tourists from Scandinavia are increasing: 791 000 nights in 2011, where the Norwegians and Swedes are for 256 000 and 228 000 of these. It still remains unknown how many tourist came to Poland for an aesthetic or medical treatment. Prognosis estimated by the Polish Institute of Tourism are showing that amount of Swedes coming to Poland in order with tourism activities is increasing gradually. Health and well-being tourism is still relatively low-range, but rapidly growing segment of Polish tourism, which in the further development can be a promotion force for Poland.
Nowadays, the price remains a crucial factor, when choosing the medical destination, safety and quality cames next. Differences in beauty treatments pricing are shown below. The most important factor contributing to these differences is not the cost of materials itself, but the cost of performing the service, which in Sweden is extremely high.
The prices were taken from Akademikliniken and Estheticon’s website in May 2012.
How about the future?
Considering the phenomenon of Swedish travelling for health and beauty one can state that medical tourism from this land will increase due to problems within the public health system, and if the high prices remain high in the private medical services and aesthetic dermatology. Another contributing factor may be that people become more aware of different options around the world due to the increased amount of companies in the health industry, their intensive advertising on the Internet and massmedia.
There is a possibility that Swedish medical and dental tourism will decrease (as a result of improved medical care in Sweden), particularly because of shorter waiting times, through increased resources in the public health and reduced costs of the private healthcare. If wages between Sweden and Poland equalize, and healthcare cost increase in the same time, it may cause that Swedes would choose any other neighbouring country or more exotic destinations as Thailand, Malaysia or India. Increased epidemiological or political risks, natural catastrophes around the world, can negatively impact the choice as well. Tourism providers has to take into consideration the risk of standarization and uniformization of products and services – this can significantly decrease uniqeness and competitiveness, what may contribute to lower interest of potential visitors.
As it is still unclear how many Swedes are coming to Poland for treatment, where they are choosing to stay, what treatments they choose I am conducting a research about Swedish beauty tourism to Poland. The aim of my study, among other things, was to find out what drives Swedes to seek medical and aesthetic care in Poland.– please let me know your experiences as a medical tourism provider or facilitator and fill out the questionnaire: https://survey.enalyzer.com/?pid=c4f3keb8
Author: Karolina Stockhaus
Stockholm, May 2012
