MEDICAL TOURISM AS AN INDEPENDENT TYPE OF ACTIVITY OF RUSSIAN MEDICAL ORGANIZATIONS: CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENTIATION

Author(s): Kondrashin V.A., Danilina E.P., Aimakova G.T.

Rubric: Management

DOI: 10.21777/2587-554X-2026-3-111-120

Release: 2026-3 (58)

Pages: 111-120

Keywords: medical tourism, therapeutic and health-improving tourism, medical trip, medical care, medical organizations, leisure activities, tourist activities, health preservation

Annotation: The article is devoted to defining the essence of medical tourism as an independent type of activity of medical organizations and to its conceptual differentiation from related concepts. The aim of the work is to develop propos- als for improving the conceptual framework of medical tourism in accordance with its scientifically substantiated essence. It has been shown that equating medical tourism with therapeutic, health-improving, and sanatorium-resort tourism hinders the correct economic assessment of its development and the development of state support measures. A content analysis of ten scientific definitions revealed that most of them omit the tourism component, reducing the phenomenon to a medical trip. An author’s definition is proposed, in which leisure and cultural-educational activities are a constitutive element alongside the receipt of medical care outside one’s permanent place of resi- dence. Three constitutive features have been identified, and a distinction has been made between medical tourism, medical trips, and therapeutic and health-improving tourism based on the ratio of the leading and supplementary components of the activity. The proven value of leisure for health is distinguished from the hypothesis put forward by the authors regarding the synergistic effect of combining treatment and leisure. The results are applicable to the development of the theory of medical tourism and the practice of creating medical and tourism products.

Bibliography: Kondrashin V.A., Danilina E.P., Aimakova G.T. MEDICAL TOURISM AS AN INDEPENDENT TYPE OF ACTIVITY OF RUSSIAN MEDICAL ORGANIZATIONS: CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENTIATION // Economics and Management. – 2026. – № 3 (58). – С. 111-120. doi: 10.21777/2587-554X-2026-3-111-120