Welcome
Welcome to the 12th CIHT Conference, an international conference dedicated to health tourism! Crikvenica was one of the first destinations in Croatia where health tourism started to develop back in the 19th century. This long and important tradition has always had the same basic goals: first class healthcare services, continuous investment in quality in line with the latest trends, and the development of human resources. The awareness of the timeless importance of health and well-being is a very important part of everyday life on the Crikvenica Riviera.
The above focus bore fruit in the form of our first health tourism conference, which was held in September 2013 on the 125th anniversary of tourism in Crikvenica. Over the past few years, the Crikvenica International Health Tourism Conference (CIHT) has become a well-known event, bringing together some of the world’s foremost experts in health, tourism and business. The organisers of the Conference are the Crikvenica Tourist Board and the Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster, while Thalassotherapia Crikvenica and the Terme Selce Polyclinic are the co-organizers.
The CIHT Conference will be held this year for the eleventh time in a row, on the 22nd and 23rd of October 2025. The venue of the Conference is the Omorika Hotel in Crikvenica.
The 2025 CIHT Conference will feature more than 15 eminent international speakers from countries all over the world. We are grateful to all of them for having set aside their time to share their valuable experience and knowledge with us. Most of these speakers are also linked with the corporate sector, i.e. companies investing in and managing this field. The priority of the Conference is the achievement of the quality of content, which also includes applicability of the shared knowledge and expertise. This year’s CIHT Conference continues to contribute to current theoretical knowledge as well as practice, emphasizing the strategic importance of the development of health tourism. The CIHT Conference is gaining a greater recognition in the branch. We ought to give special thanks to the long-time sponsors of the Conference, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia and all our partners. We also thank all who participated in the organisation of this year’s Conference, and we are confident that CIHT 2025 will again prove the value of cooperation between health services, tourism and business, along with all the others who directly or indirectly impact this sector, thus tracing a joint path to success.
Thank you for your participation. We trust that you will enjoy the many interesting topics, educational presentations and constructive debates at this year’s CIHT Conference. Looking forward to seeing you again in 2026!
Organisers:
CRIKVENICA TOURIST BOARD
Crikvenica Tourist Board includes a central Tourist Office and four Tourist Information Centres in coastal towns on the Crikvenica Riviera: in Crikvenica, Dramalj, Jadranovo and Selce. Its basic vision and mission is to constantly invest in quality and to effectively connect the existing services and facilities on the Riviera with the aim of increasing the number of visitors and their level of satisfaction. Other objectives include the creation of new interesting services, activities, destination brands and marketing strategies to make the Crikvenica Riviera recognisable on the market as a desirable destination for leisure, entertainment, relaxation, sport and recreation.
When developing new activities and raising the quality of existing ones, Crikvenica Tourist Board follows global trends while at the same respecting local traditions and including the typical features of the destination. It has extensive experience in developing various projects and organising numerous cultural, entertainment, traditional, culinary, sporting, recreational, and other events. Crikvenica Tourist Board is also in charge of numerous promotional activities, such as the production of various digital and print materials, offline and online advertising on Croatian and foreign markets, targeted destination promotions in the most significant source markets (fairs, presentations) and inviting study groups of journalists and agents.
Crikvenica Tourist Board also coordinates activities in the destination and cooperates with all entities whose business is directly or indirectly related to tourism. Offering a unique and unforgettable experience is the basic guideline when creating projects. Crikvenica Tourist Board seeks to inspire visitors to participate actively in events by organising fishing or sailing events, bocce tournaments or the cooking of traditional dishes in the company of their hosts. These efforts and innovation have been recognised at the international level: in 2014 the ‘Creative Tourism Network’ declared Crikvenica Tourist Board the world’s most creative destination. The basic criterion for this was the fact that visitors are involved in the life of the local community.
KVARNER HEALTH TOURISM CLUSTER
Kvarner Health Tourism Cluster gathers members from medical, touristic and university sector, as well as accompanying services with the goal of creating a recognizable and competitive health tourism product on the local and international level. Our organization implies preparations and placements of the recognizable and competitive health tourism product which must follow the world trends, tradition, resource base and specific features of the destination. We are directed towards strengthening and development of health tourism on Kvarner, in accordance with the strategic documents which define the destination as ‘the destination of health’.
The Cluster operates systematically and actively on stimulating synergic processes, directed towards improving the range and quality of the overall health tourism offer of Kvarner as the destination of health, through joint placement of services on the health tourism market, for the purpose of raising the degree of capacity use and overall prosperity of the Kvarner tourist destination. Kvarner, as a tourist destination, is positioned among the leading ‘destinations of health’ on the European map, and even wider. We are recognizable for our year-round offer of high-quality services in health tourism, based on contemporary trends, resource base and tradition.
