CLUSTER

What is the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster?

The Latvian Health Tourism Cluster is a cluster of Latvia’s leading private and state organisations that together provide a full set of services to meet the needs of medical tourists. The cluster was established in 2012 with the goal of offering quality medical services to foreign patients. It has 60 members:

• state, municipal and regional hospitals;
• private clinics;
• rehabilitation centres;
• spa hotels;
• travel agencies;
• educational and research institutions.

Coordinated collaboration between the cluster’s members will facilitate a targeted increase in the volume of medical tourism services and make Latvia more competitive overseas. Health tourism includes services to improve the overall condition and well-being of the body, prophylaxis, treatment and rehabilitation. Provision of these services in the form of a package means that we can rest assured that the very best care will be provided to every patient.

The Cluster’s Operational Realms:

Latvian health tourism is a growing industry, with the great export potential, the world’s latest technologies and methods, innovative medical products and services. The cluster operates in order to successfully fulfil the industry’s potential and provide patients with the very best healthcare experience in Latvia.

The cluster fosters collaboration between those working in the health sector, implements joint marketing activities, forms and markets integrated and innovative medical tourism products and services, thus making them more accessible to both locals and foreign tourists.

The cluster’s basic operating realms are as follows:

• The cluster keeps track of international trends.
• Introduction of an internal institutional quality system for members of the cluster. In the long-term patients should be provided with a high quality level of service and hospitality at each of the cluster’s medical institutions.
• The cluster promotes collaboration between companies, which can offer clients complex health tourism services.
• It nurtures collaborative links between members of the cluster and scientific institutions in the realm of research and development, in order to create new and innovative products and services with high added value, including utilising Latvia’s unique nature capital.
• The cluster implements industry marketing activities, which increase the volume of export services.
• Represents the interests of the health tourism and medical sectors in the drafting of politics and development documents.
• It organises thematic training conducted by high level foreign lecturers, tourism companies and educational institutions for members of the cluster so that the day to day running of the health tourism sector is increasingly efficient and delivers consistent customer satisfaction.
• The cluster serves as a single information platform, collating the medical tourism offering in Latvia. It is the point of contact for Latvian state institutions and source of information for potential guest from abroad.
• It facilitate expansion and international cooperation. The cluster has developed a successful collaboration with health and medical sector associations and other cluster throughout the Baltic Sea region. Its future plans include introducing a successful modal for cooperation between the Baltic States in the realm of health tourism.
• Attracts new EU financial support instruments for implementation of various health tourism projects.

Information for Members

Participation in the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster provides the opportunity to improve collaboration between those working in the health sector, to perform joint marketing activities, to devise and market integrated innovative health tourism products and services, thus making them much more accessible to both locals and foreign tourists.

Criteria for Admitting New Businesses to the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster:

• The business employs a paid employee, whose immediate duties include implementation of marketing and sales services within the realm of foreign medical tourism;
• The business employs an employee whose immediate duties include serving foreign clients and providing the required technical and organisational support to welcome them;
• In accordance with the Republic of Latvia’s Statistics Law,  every year the business must foreign medical statistics to the Disease Prevention and Control Centre (DPCC);
• The business must adhere to the Ethics Code of the organisation and cluster;
• The business must pay an annual membership fee to the organisation of EUR 300;
• The business must meet the quality criteria of the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster;
• The business’s internet homepage is available in English and Russian.