The importance of healthtourism in the global world and the situation of Turkey

Health tourism is defined as the travel from one country to another in order to be treated for any reason. The global health tourism sector is one of the fastest growing sector and increases market share recently. Both the contribution of the country's economy and its connection with other sectors are very high. Health care expenditure reached 100 billion dollar in 2012. 600 million medical tourists around the world pay an average of 2500 dollars. This indicates the size and importance of the sector. There are several reasons why medical tourism is so important. * Increased outpatient surgery and treatments, * Increased demand for treatments for esthetic and cosmetic surgery, * Price increases in dental treatments and practices. This study first examines the history and development of health tourism in the world, Health tourism is gathered in many sub-titles among itselftes Medical procedures, such as surgical interventions or emergency treatments indicates medical tourism; Remedies for health tourism, rehabilitation programs, spiritual therapies, detoxies shows wellness; The tourism movement for hot and mineral waters with connection of water and massage form thermal toursm. Elderly and disabled tourism constitute the other health tourism classification. Our study mainly focused on medical tıurism which is in the second part. Medical tourism includes medical procedures or activities designed to improve the wellbeing of health tourism. In particular, the successful countries like India and their price advantage in medical tourism have been examined. In the third chapter, Turkey's health tourism situation, technology, airlines, quality and price procedures are compared with other countries. Turkey is a country with sufficient infrastructure and facilities to improve health tourism. Keywords: Health Tourism, Medical Tourism, Thermal Tourism, Turkey,Ministry of Health