A Study on Health Tourism, The Rising Value in Services Exports of Turkey

Abstract

After import substitution policies in the 1980s Türkiye, which implemented an export-led growth model in foreign trade, has made important strides in balancing the current account deficit in goods trade after the 2000s with services exports led by tourism and transportation services. In particular, serious developments have been achieved since 2012 with various steps and support mechanisms taken to increase the foreign exchange revenues obtained from service trade and to make them sustainable. The fact that health tourism, which is considered a sub-branch of tourism activities, is one of the leading sectors that benefit from supports as a foreign exchange earning activity, is considered to be an indicator of the importance of this issue. Turkey, with its health system infrastructure equipped with modern medical devices and experienced / competent health personnel, has given a relatively successful exam under pandemic conditions and has reinforced its image as an assertive and important destination in terms of health tourism. Within the scope of the author's doctoral thesis on Service Export and Health Tourism, the findings obtained from the focus group discussions on the strengths and weaknesses of Turkey's health tourism, the steps to be taken towards branding and the future trends are summarized in this study and it is aimed to shed light on the future studies on this subject.