Opportunities for Digitalization in Marketing Management of Health Tourism in Bulgaria

Abstract

With the development of the tourism industry worldwide, there is a need for proper and sustainable management of the specialized types of tourism and one of the most developed one is health tourism. According to the tourist zoning in Bulgaria, seven regions with basic and extended specialization in the field of health tourism can be distinguished. Embracing digitalisation throughout the tourism industry will help to develop the health tourism business in a post-COVID-19 era. This will include analysis of the opportunities digitalisation opens up for marketing, product and tourism destination management. According to the Ministry of Tourism in Bulgaria digitalization is not just a change but a mandatory transformation for the tourism in Bulgaria to be efficient and competitive. In this paper, the authors strive to disclose opportunities for digitalization of marketing management on national level as well as in specific tourism regions in Bulgaria. In the article good international practices of digitalisation in the health tourism field are analysed and specific measures for the external marketing of the destination are proposed to implement in the marketing management of the health tourism in Bulgaria. Keywords: digitalization, marketing management, tourism regions, health tourism