II. EURASIA INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF HEALTH SCIENCES
AWARENESS OF DOCTORS AND TOURISM PROFESSIONALS WITHIN THE SCOPE OF HEALTH TOURISM MARKETING
Yayıncı:
Liberty Publications
Health tourism is becoming very important today and has been included in the strategic plans of countries. However, there is not much information about health tourism awareness in our country. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to determine the health tourism awareness levels of representatives (doctors and tourism professionals) in the health sector and tourism sector. Accordingly, data were collected from 60 doctors and 60 tourism professionals from 5 cities in the Eastern Black Sea Region (Bayburt, Gümüşhane, Trabzon, Rize, Giresun). The data obtained were evaluated by content analysis method. As a result of the study, it was observed that doctors and tourism professionals have knowledge about health tourism and evaluate health tourism activities positively. Doctors stated that this region is mostly preferred for hair transplantation, aesthetics, dental and eye diseases. Georgia provides the highest number of health tourists due to its proximity to the region. While positive opinions on health tourism practices are mostly in Trabzon, negative opinions are mostly in Bayburt. In Trabzon province, one hospital (KTU Farabi Hospital) stands out in this regard. In this region, health tourism is positively affected by the increase in the number of tourists, especially in the summer months. The most common problems in health tourism in the Eastern Black Sea region are transportation and accommodation problems. The insufficient number of international flights to this region is seen as the most important problem. In addition to these, the participants also stated that marketing activities are insufficient. One of the prominent points is that doctors and tourists have limited knowledge about health tourism standards. Despite this, doctors argued that their own competencies were high, while most of the tourism professionals (except Bayburt and Gümüşhane) stated that their knowledge and skills were sufficient for health tourism. However, tourism professionals largely evaluate hotels negatively in terms of the practices implemented so far in health tourism
