İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi / Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11727/1399
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Item The Effect of Cultural Distance on Medical Tourism(2017) Esiyok, Bulent; Cakar, Mehmet; Kurtulmusoglu, Feride Bahar; 0000-0001-7469-5309; HTR-6588-2023This 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.Item 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-7372-2020Water 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.Item Motivations and Destination Selection of Mature International Thalassotherapy Tourists(2017) Kurtulmusoglu, Feride Bahar; Esiyok, Bulent; 0000-0001-7469-5309; HTR-6588-2023Because 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.