Abstract:

In recent years, most countries have tried to gain international competitiveness in service sectors. It is important to develop in the sector, have a cost advantage, and gain an advantage in the exchange rate and more economic openness. On the other hand, achieving competitiveness in health tourism, an international service trade, allows economic openness. Low cost, high quality, good advertising activities, low ticket prices, and so forth lead to competition in order to increase the export of health care. The high competitiveness of health tourism contributes to economic growth. Conversely, Türkiye's competitive advantages in terms of health tourism have contributed to both the sector and economic growth. In this context, first, the competitiveness of health tourism was analyzed using the export-import ratio index for the period 2003Q1–2019Q4 in Türkiye. The analysis revealed that Türkiye has a competitive advantage in health tourism. Second, the scores of health tourism competitiveness, number of tourists, travel revenues and economic growth were investigated using the vector autoregression method to analyse the effects of the factors on each other. According to the analysis, the impact of a shock in health tourism competitiveness and tourist number on economic growth have lasted for a long time.

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