The awareness levels of Medical Faculty and Tourism Faculty students about health tourism

In the modern sense, health tourism has recently emerged as a concept that highlights its importance throughout the world. Countries seeking development and / or development have realized the income of the sector and have started to invest in this area. The reason for this is the factors that affect the world and seriously shake the economies, such as Covid-19, show how important it is to diversify the sectors that are invested in health infrastructure and the strong country's economy. Turkey is one of the countries assign real steps in order to become a global player in this field. However, the work done is not sufficient and the desired level yet. In this study, it was aimed to determine the level of awareness of medical and tourism faculty students about health tourism. The study, which is composed of universities with medical faculties and tourism faculties, was presented to the target audience in an online environment and was conducted based on the responses of 487 people who participated in the survey. The questionnaire used as a data collection tool, consists of two parts. In the first part; there are demographic questions for the determination of the personal informations of the students included in the study by the researcher, and the second part includes the health tourism awareness scale for measuring the health tourism awareness of the participants. In the study, the questions determined for the survey were divided into four factors (Language-Education, Effects of Health Tourism, Image and Institutional Competence) and analyzed according to the variables of "gender, age, department, class and foreign language". As a result of statistical analysis; It was understood that the health tourism perceptions of the students participating in the study did not differ significantly according to the variables of "class" and "foreign language". According to the "gender" variable, "the effects of health tourism" and "image" dimension, "male students' awareness of health tourism is higher than female students", according to the "age" variable, "language-education" and "the effects of health tourism" dimension: "the awareness of students who are 28 years old and olders about health tourism is higher than the students in other age groups, and according to the "department" variable, "language education" and "effects of health tourism" dimension it is determined that "tourism faculty students' awareness of health tourism is higher than medical faculty students". At the same time, students; is aware of the opportunities and advantages offered by the health tourism sector with its contribution to the national economy, they have higher awareness on the issues that support and investments made to the sector are the driving force in raising the quality standards in health, In addition, it was concluded that they have less knowledge and knowledge about the concept and types of health tourism, the characteristics of the field, the support and incentives provided, international health tourism standards, specialized personnel, promotion and marketing. Finally, suggestions were made regarding the missing aspects. Keywords: Health, Health Tourism, Faculty of Medicine, Tourism, Faculty of Tourism