Conceptual Analysis of the Change in the Historical Process in Health Tourism

Abstract

In this study, the development processes of health tourism and related basic concepts were revealed by n-gram analysis. In the digitalized books in Google database; concepts related to health tourism such as medical categorization, bathing and water treatment, tourism and tourism types have been selected as key words and the evolution of these words with respect to time has been studied. The frequency of occurrence was determined, and the relationships between the usage frequencies of these concepts and their time-dependent changes were analyzed and visualized. Obtained findings evaluated together, it is observed that the concept of modern medicine has existed in the literature since the 1800s and rise after the 1890s. It has been determined that the concepts of hot springs, mineral water and balneology were used before the 1800s, but did not vary much except for small fluctuations. While the concept of spa was observed with high frequency between 1800 and 1850, it was found to be relatively low until the 1960s. After the 1960s it showed an increasing trend. The concepts related to health and tourism have increased after the 1960s, but have a widespread use frequency especially after the 1990s. Especially with the increase in the welfare level of societies, the increase in the frequency of use of these concepts is remarkably parallel.