The effect of health tourism on financial markets in Turkey

The purpose of this research is to analyze the impact of health tourism on financial markets in Turkey. For this purpose, Turkey's health tourism revenues as a health tourism variable, dollar/TL exchange rate and Bist100 index data as a financial market variable were used in the study. The Central Bank and TUIK data of the quarter periods of 2002-2023 were used for the data belonging to the variables. In the model created in the research, whether the series made for dependent and independent data sets are stationary was tested with Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) unit root test and Phillips–Perron (PP) unit root tests. Examination of cointegration relations between stationary variables at different orders was provided by ARDL cointegration analysis method. When the F bounds test statistic, which is used to show whether the long-term balance given in the research findings is statistically significant, is examined, it was observed that the calculated F statistic was higher than the 1% critical values, and the null hypothesis stating that there was no cointegration at the 1% significance level was rejected. More clearly, it can be said that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between health tourism revenues, Bist100 index and dollar/TL rate for the period discussed. When the long-term coefficient of the Bist100 index is examined, it is seen that a statistically significant and positive long-term coefficient is calculated at the 1% significance level. In this case, it can be said that a 1% increase/decrease in health tourism revenues in the long term during the period under consideration caused an increase/decrease of 1.21% in the Bist100 index. When the long-term coefficient of the USD/TL exchange rate index is examined, it is seen that a statistically significant and negative long-term coefficient is calculated at the 10% significance level. In this case, it can be said that a 1% decrease/increase in health tourism revenues in the long term during the period under consideration caused a 4.22% increase/decrease in the dollar/TL index.