Research on health tourism potential of Kuşadası

The main reasons of the rising popularity of health tourism are, increase in the cost of healthcare in the cost of healthcare services, technoligical developments, ease of traveling, increase in the elder population of the world, increase of waiting time in the healthcare services, effort to improve quality of life and aesthetic concerns. The natural thermal springs, famous doctors lived throughout history and Asklepions known as healthcare centers, helped on positioning Turkey as a health tourism center from ancient period until today. By the help of local doctors' growing reputation worldwide day by day, and the full-fledged healthcare facilities that enables every possible treatment within, Turkey became a strong candidate of being a brand in health tourism. In this study, Kusadasi district Governor and Kusadasi district Governor Vice President are interviewed individually. Additionally, a focus group of professional tourist guides are also interviewed. The analysis of the data gathered from the interview results was combined with the literature sources, and presented in the results and recommendations section. As an outcome of the study, applicable improvements are stated to improve health tourism in Kusadasi by revealing the existing potentials, and also possible solutions to current difficulties of health tourism are developed.