Dental surgery tourism leads in Serbia

Serbia gets 40,000 to 60,000 medical tourists a year, mostly for dental treatment according to the National Association of Travel Agencies of Serbia (Yuta). They also claim that the number of medical tourists to the country is growing, from 10% to 15%.

Most medical tourists to Serbia are from the countries of former Yugoslavia; Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Kosovo, and Montenegro. Some come from the rest of Europe; mainly from central Europe and Scandinavia. 80% of them seek dental treatment, the rest seek cosmetic and orthopaedic surgery.

Belgrade has become a destination for gender reassignment surgery, with between 70 and 100 such operations carried out every year in the city, with the majority of patients coming from the USA and Canada, but also from Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, North Macedonia and Bosnia, Italy, Israel, Iraq, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Serbia’s tourism development strategy for 2016 to 2025 identifies health tourism as one of the products of particular importance for the development of the healthcare industry.

Serbia has potential to develop its health tourism sector. The country has 50 spas and climatic resorts and over 1,000 springs, 500 of which are sources of cold and hot mineral water, as well as a wealth of natural mineral gases and medicinal mud. Spa tourism currently only accounts for 10% of foreign tourists, about 170,000.