Destination planning within touristic product: Health tourism cluster of İzmir region

Demands on tourism, which are constantly changing and seeking new experiences, have emanated as an outcome of globalization, which brings along the ease of transportation, the development of technology and an increase in the awareness of a high quality life with it. Accordingly, the touristic products adjusting these alterations are gradually gaining importance for the destinations which want to get a share from this sector. The competitive capacity of destinations is based on some factors such as the products they have, the performance of the existing businesses and their capacity to make innovations and the ensuring of collaboration among stakeholders. Accordingly, the destinations are required to determine some competitive strategies by analyzing their competitors and themselves. In the field, there exist a lot of competitive strategies and one of strategies is called the clustering approach. In this study, the clustering and management patterns have been proposed in order to give Izmir a brand name and make it one of the leading cities in medical tourism, which has gained a considerable importance at an international level recently. Prior to composing a model, the related literature has been reviewed on touristic product, destination, and planning, clustering and medical tourism. Following this, the current medical tourism competitive status of Izmir has been specified through Porter's Diamond Model by drawing upon secondary data. In the study, focus group discussions have been performed with the stakeholder representatives working in the sector presently and the representatives who might take place in a probable medical tourism clustering. Based on the findings, conclusion and suggestions have been presented. Keywords: Touristic product, Planning, Destination, Competitive Capacity Strategies, Clustering, Health Tourism, Medical Tourism