Abstract:

With the support of developments in the health tourism, healthcare, technology and transport sector, it has shown significant developments in recent years. In many countries, health tourism activities can be carried out in the context of getting better health and care services, taking advantage of healing water resources and taking advantage of the therapeutic and care services offered for the elderly groups. Health tourism includes not only medical activities, it also includes a wide range of activities from accommodation facilities to tourist tours for individuals and companions. It is known that the demand for health tourism in Turkey has increased as well as the number of high-tech health facilities has grown. Turkey’s third-largest city, Izmir has a significant potential in terms of health tourism, along with its tourism infrastructure and wealth. The purpose of the research is to analyze the current state of the İzmir province in terms of health tourism and its potential in this framework. In this context, it has been discussed with healthcare enterprises, accommodation and tourism enterprises that operate as key actors in the field of health tourism in the province of İzmir. According to the findings obtained, it has been found that Izmir has a significant potential in terms of health tourism, but it has not been achieved that because of some deficiencies it has not been able to reveal its potential at a sufficient level.

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