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Sweden Unveils ‘Swedish Prescription,’ Claiming the First Country-Level Travel-on-Prescription Program

The tourism board’s research-framed offering provides doctor-ready materials but remains outside public healthcare funding.

Overview

  • Visit Sweden launched a curated set of nature, culture and social activities presented as health interventions, with benefits reviewed by Karolinska Institutet professor Yvonne Forsell.
  • Patients can download a referral form to take to their GP, and a list of physicians has been identified who are prepared to issue a Swedish Prescription when appropriate.
  • Examples include cloudberry picking framed for blood pressure benefits, saunas in Swedish Lapland for sleep quality, and cold plunges in the archipelago for circulation.
  • The initiative is promotional and voluntary, with trip costs paid by patients and no formal integration or reimbursement by national health systems reported.
  • A Visit Sweden–commissioned YouGov survey found broad openness to nature and social prescriptions, and clinicians quoted in coverage say they are open to discussing or prescribing visits to Sweden.