Since January 1, 2019, the Russian Federation has entered the global medical tourism market thanks to the approved federal project "Development of the export of medical services". The level of attractiveness of a country as a global destination for medical tourists is determined by a number of factors: the level of medical technology, transport accessibility, proximity to donor countries of foreign patients; the level of realization of export potential, international reputation, medical marketing; the level of healthcare organization, international staff training, etc. Among the factors determining the success of the country as the destination of medical tourism, a special place is held by the recreational complex, spa treatment. The level of development of the recreational complex within the framework of medical tourism performs several tasks at once: it provides a full cycle of medical assistance to foreign medical tourists - from outpatient admissions and in-patient treatment to rehabilitation and recovery; sanatorium-resort treatment and rehabilitation are considered not only as an integral part of the complex of medical services, but also as an independent promising direction for the export of medical services by domestic health resorts. Also, the fight against the consequences of COVID-19, when hundreds of thousands of neighboring states citizens need qualified rehabilitation, can become a driver for the development of the sanatorium-resort complex of Russia. The purpose of the study is to identify bottlenecks in the development strategy of the recreational potential of the regions of the Russian Federation and make suggestions for its improvement. The number of foreign patients who received medical care from January to May 2020 in the federal districts is 729,000. This indicator was achieved during the pandemic, and therefore does not reflect the true potential of rehabilitation as an element of the full cycle of medical care for foreign patients. The target audience for rehabilitation programs is up to 100,000 foreign patients.
Keywords: SPA center; health tourism; medical tourism; recreational potential; spa tourism.