Browsing by Author "Esiyok, Bulent"

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The Effect of Cultural Distance on Medical Tourism
(2017) Esiyok, Bulent; Cakar, Mehmet; Kurtulmusoglu, Feride Bahar; 0000-0001-7469-5309; HTR-6588-2023
This study analyses the relationships between the origin countries of international patients and their cultural distance from the destination country in the context of medical tourism. A novel panel dataset is used, covering 109 origin countries whose citizens came to Turkey and received medical treatment during 2012-2014. After accounting for control variables such as religious similarity, Turkish diaspora in the origin country, physical distance, GDP per capita and number of inbound tourists, the study finds that cultural distance has an impact on the choice of destination for medical tourism. This impact persists at the medical specialty level.
Foreign Direct Investment Among Developing Markets and Its Technological Impact on Host: Evidence from Spatial Analysis of Chinese Investment in Africa
(2021) Hu, Dengfeng; You, Kefei; Esiyok, Bulent
This paper investigates the technological impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) among developing markets on the host economy, as the distinctive features of FDI from developing countries may induce stronger technologyenhancing effect on the host developing nations than that of FDI from developed economies. Adopting the context of Chinese FDI in a set of 24 African nations during 2006?2017, we first separate structural change from total factor productivity (TFP) to obtain the technological progress series. We then account for spatial dependence in technological progress across countries by employing various spatial models; of these, the Spatial Durbin Model is found to best describe our data. We find that, first, both structural change and technological progress have contributed positively to TFP in Africa. Thus, the latter captures the pure technological change more accurately than TFP does. Second, Chinese FDI in Africa has had a positive and significant effect on the region?s technological progress, whilst non-Chinese FDI (mainly from developed countries) has not, substantiating our expectation of stronger technological benefit for developing economies when FDI is from other developing nations. Finally, there had been negative spatial technological dependence across countries, implying a competitive rather than cooperative relationship among African nations.
Heterogeneity in the Determinants of Length of Stay Across Middle Age and Senior Age Groups in Thermal Tourism
(2018) Esiyok, Bulent; Kurtulmusoglu, Feride Bahar; Ozdemir, Aydan; 0000-0001-7469-5309; HTR-6588-2023; ABH-7372-2020
Water has been seen as a healing source of life for centuries. Even the placebo effect of thermal therapies increases consumers' well-being. Especially with easy traveling options demand for thermal therapies are on the rise. Users of thermal therapies are mostly composed of seniors. Even though age groups in the senior market have heterogeneous needs, managers assume them to be homogenous. Measuring thermal tourism demand by the length of stay, this study analyzed the determinants affecting the length of stay of older thermal tourists. The length of stay is predicted to have been affected by age, purchasing power, physical distance, and seasonal preferences. Even though all of the above have an effect on the length of stay, we find that age is the main determinant deciding the duration. These results may serve as a starting point for policymakers and tourism managers to tailor strategies to increase income streams associated with length of stay.
Motivations and Destination Selection of Mature International Thalassotherapy Tourists
(2017) Kurtulmusoglu, Feride Bahar; Esiyok, Bulent; 0000-0001-7469-5309; HTR-6588-2023
Because of population ageing worldwide, awareness of the motives of mature tourists is more important than ever. Previous studies show that, among others, income level, distance and education influence the decisions of tourists when choosing a travel destination. However, studies on health tourism suggest that these general conclusions may mask differences across different age groups. For instance, older people place greater reliance on their savings than their current income for tourism expenditure. We take this line of research and examine destination selection of mature international thalassotherapy tourists in conjunction with their motivations (as a subdivision of thermal tourism) across two age groups: 54 years and under and 55 years and over. We conduct a panel data analysis on 78 countries from which tourists in Turkey received thalassotherapy from 2012 to 2014. We find that the 55 years and over age group is less sensitive to income levels but more sensitive to distance and education than the other age group.