Abstract:

Medical tourism has grown rapidly with its increased availability in destination countries, which has resulted in intense competition to attract medical tourists. At the same time, the preferred destinations of medical tourists have shifted from developed to developing countries. This is a result of high costs, uneven health services and quality, long waiting lists, and poor access to health-care services in the tourists’ home countries coupled with greater privacy and confidentiality available overseas. The choice of location choice is likely to be affected by the treatment needed. Currently, few empirical studies have taken into account the heterogeneity in treatment types offered at a subnational level. The present study aims to address this gap: it analyzes the factors that affect the location choice of international patients diagnosed with chronic illnesses in need of treatment at surgical or internal medicine clinics in Turkey. We use a panel of annual data for Turkish cities that hosted medical tourists over a 4-year period. We found that patients who underwent treatment at surgical or internal medicine clinics evidenced different sensitivities to climate conditions, costs, and the ratio of private to total hospitals in their destination cities. However, we discovered no considerable differences in the responses related to travel convenience or the existence of local medical expertise.

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