AN EVALUATION ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH TOURISM IN TÜRKİYE

Abstract

Today people participate in tourism activities for different reasons. In this context, health tourism has become very popular as people travel for both health and holiday purposes. Health tourism has a very important place among tourism types due to its features such as not being seasonal, being able to be done all year round, and requiring longer stays depending on the treatment condition. Türkiye is a very assertive destination in the field of health tourism, thanks to its geographical location, climate characteristics, natural resources, expertly trained manpower and qualified tourism facilities. In this study, data was obtained from secondary sources by using the document review technique, one of the qualitative research methods, and the development and importance of health tourism in Türkiye was evaluated. In this context, studies on the status of health tourism in Türkiye have been examined, and Türkiye’s strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities in health tourism have been discussed. In addition, using tourism data between 2003 and 2023, the number of tourists coming to Türkiye for medical and health reasons and the tourism revenues obtained from health tourism were evaluated and predictions were made for the future of health tourism.