The leading event in tourism and health industry, IMTJ Medical Travel Summit 2017 this year took place in Opatija, Croatia. The event has great significance for Croatian economy as it hosted almost 350 representatives from the world's leading institutions in the industry of health and tourism, from over 45 countries in the world.

So far, the event took place in Dubai, London and Madrid which places Croatia and our charming Opatija in line with the world's leading destinations. Bagatin Clinic was a proud silver sponsor of this event, which placed it alongside the world's top clinics.

The IMTJ (International Medical Travel Journal) celebrates excellence and the accomplishments of service providers around the world and awards the best ones in 19 categories. All efforts that Bagatin Clinic made so far in positioning Croatia as a top destination on the world map of medical tourism, and itself as the number 1 clinic in the region were recognized by the organizer and they were nominated in two categories.

The nominations were coming from all over the world which makes this acknowledgement for the best international cosmetic surgery clinic even bigger.

The nomination in the marketing category for best marketing initiative in clinic branding was equally important. The intense cooperation with local and national government institutions like Croatian Chamber of Commerce, various Ministries – Tourism, Health, Foreign and European Affairs, the Office of the President, National and Zagreb Tourist Board proved to be crucial.

Destination Guide, an English language guide which contains all the necessary information about Bagatin Clinic and its services, about Zagreb as top tourism destination, their participation on international conferences, forming a medical tourism department, led Bagatin Clinic to the finals and placed it among the 3 best clinics in the world.

The evidence of Croatian service quality, importance of the destination and joint efforts are great accomplishments of other Croatian clinics as well. St. Catherine Specialty Hospital, specialized in orthopedics, surgery, internal medicine, neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation was awarded best international specialty hospital of the year.

Dental clinic Rident was awarded best international dental clinic of the year and Eye Clinic Svjetlost was the second best in the international eye clinic of the year category.

In the end we asked the director of Bagatin Clinic, Mr. Ognjen Bagatin, to give his comment: “The service quality of plastic surgery in Bagatin Clinic is on the highest level, as well as the marketing activities we undertook in order to best present ourselves to potential international clients and patients. This award was a confirmation of our dedicated work from the international community. It came as an additional confirmation of service quality that our patients recognize giving us their confidence every day.

I am equally proud of our second nomination that put us among top 3 clinics in the world in terms of marketing activity. I am proud and grateful of every team member that contributed to this acknowledgement with their dedication and love for what we do. You are my superheroes!”