A public relations-oriented analysis of health tourism in Turkey: An analysis of digital patient reviews

This thesis examines Turkey's health tourism sector from a public relations perspective by analyzing international patients' digital experiences using AI-supported methods. A total of 4,363 reviews from the Trustpilot platform were analyzed through text mining, sentiment analysis, and topic modeling techniques. The findings indicate that satisfaction is mostly linked to treatment quality, physician attentiveness, and cost-performance balance, while dissatisfaction arises from communication gaps, inadequate follow-up, and trust issues. The study integrates digital patient feedback with public relations practices, offering a unique data-driven insight into online reputation management. It also provides evidence-based recommendations for enhancing Turkey's digital communication strategies in health tourism. Thus, the thesis contributes both to academic literature and to strategic development within the sector.