Structural analysis of thermal hotels and foreign tourism demands within the scope of health tourism : The case of Aydin city

The aim of this study is to determine the factors affecting foreign travel demand for thermal hotels in Aydın province within the scope of health tourism. The study was designed in qualitative research techniques and used case study approach. Method triangulation was conducted using interview and document analysis methods. Face-to-face interviews were performed with managers of five thermal hotels in Aydın province between the dates of 08.04.2019 and 10.05.2019. The data for document analysis consisted of comments of foreign visitors who stayed at thermal hotels in Aydın at Tripadvisor website. Thus, data triangulation was done using two different sources of data. Data collected from interviews were analyzed using descriptive analysis methods in accordance with the conceptual framework and were conveyed to the readers through direct quotations. For document analysis, the comments of foreign visitors obtained from Tripadvisor website were analyzed using content analysis. For content analysis, firstly, codes were determined and categorized, themes were formed, and data obtained were digitized. It was concluded from the study that foreign travel demand of thermal hotels located around historical and cultural entities and natural beauties in Aydın province were affected by economic factors such as price, real exchange rate, distance, transportation, accommodation and supply capacity and also by non-economic factors such as psychological, political and social factors. Furthermore, physical values related to the facilities were found to be among the factors that were firstly considered by the visitors. Thus, the results of the study revealed that improving physical values might have an indirect positive impact on effective, potential and marginal foreign travel demand.