Thinking Like a Potential Health Tourist: Information Research to Break Prejudice

The aim of this research is to reveal how and with what keywords online information about health tourism destinations is searched by health tourists and to provide guidance on what health tourism destination management and marketers should do. Since the information research conducted by potential health tourists on online platforms shows that it was conducted to obtain information about health tourism destinations, a case study was preferred as the design of the study. The population of the current study consists of platforms where potential health tourists can search for information online. To ensure maximum diversity, Google Search, which is one of the online information platforms and has the largest user base, was chosen to present the case study. The increase in searches for "Medical tourism" between ۲۰۰۴ and ۲۰۲۳ shows that interest in medical tourism is increasing at the global level. The rise of Mauritius, Singapore, The United Arab Emirates, Philippines, and India in health tourism is associated with the unique advantages they offer, quality services and medical practices at international standards. This shows that these countries have a strong position in global competition in the field of health tourism. When searched with filters such as "Worldwide", "۲۰۰۸-۲۰۲۳", "Health and YouTube", the results are as follows: India medical tourism, Mexico medical tourism, Thailand medical tourism and Turkey medical tourism were reported. Increasing search trends for health tourism also point to changes in the healthcare industry, and patients are increasingly looking for more options.

کلیدواژه ها:

Health tourism ، Medical tourism ، Health Tourist ، Destination choice ، Prejudice ، Health management