Healthcare Tourism in Second Decade of 21st Century- A Review of Turkey as the New Global Center for International Patients

Abstract

Nowadays, people are in search of both travelling in good suitable conditions and having different holiday experiences. Long waiting times, high costs and health insurance problems force some people to go abroad for treatment. This has led to an increase in the demand of external resources and thus the emergence of healthcare tourism. Healthcare tourism is a type of service tourism in which various medical and non-medical treatments are offered in combination with travel and accommodation services. Health tourism includes travelling from one's permanent place of accommodation to another country or region for the purpose of receiving medical (organ transplantation, surgeries, dental and eye treatments, diagnostic services, etc.) or non-medical (plastic surgery operations, wellness and fitness, geriatric care and treatments, etc.) services.