Health services marketing through thermal organisations and service quality in terms of health tourism: An applicatoin in Balçova thermal organisation

Health tourism which has acquired a place in the health and tourism policy of countries and which has frequently been mentioned in congresses has been a sector which has been regarded as important by the countries which want to have a share in the international market which has alot of competition. The number of people who want to travel to get service which is cheap and of high quality is increasing slowly and the countries are trying to create an attractiveness to meet this demand.Although there is a lot of research about the profile of the customer (patient) who comes to thermal facilities which has an important place in complementary and alternative medicine fields and has the potential of attracting native and foreign patients to be healthy The studies on the difference of thermal facilities in terms of the quality of service given by the health sector are few. However the thermal customer (patient) is not just hotel guest or a person who will just benefit from the pool and leave. The marketing activities are very important to carry out the health service to meet the expectatiıns of the people who benefit from it. So quality ? patient satisfaction (correlation) ? health service marketing relationship has become a matter which attracts attention at thermal facilities at just like all health facilities.The aim of this study is to determine how the quality of service is regarded by the thermal customer and to detect to which extent customer satisfaction is realized. Under the light of the data got by determining to which extent customer satisfaction is realized.In the first part of this study after emphasizing the approaches and studies which are aimed at health tourism and thermal management first of all health and treatment services and then other services at thermal facilities are discussed.In the second part after mentioning marketing and management and health service marketing the most suitable component has been tried to be formed by also making use of the data required in the direction of the detection of the state of the marketing component .In addition explanations on service quality at thermal facilities are made.In the third and last part findings are found on thermal health service marketing to acquire thermal customer satisfaction correlation according to the expectations of the patients by making use of the results of the servqual tests which are made at Balçova Thermal facility.