Speaking at the international organization held in Antalya, Dr. Ahmet Savaşan, President of the World Health Tourism Council and Member of Parliament, pointed out that health tourism has become one of the fastest growing sectors with a worldwide volume exceeding 500 billion dollars.
Within the scope of the international Antalya Tourism Fair, which brought together twenty-five thousand tourism professionals and over six hundred brands from thirty-five countries, many important issues such as “How to Develop Health Tourism”, “Artificial Intelligence Applications in Tourism”, “Destination and Crisis Management”, “Digital Guest Experience in Hotels” were discussed in panels held with the participation of expert speakers.
“LEGAL FRAMEWORK, INFRASTRUCTURE AND ACCREDITATION HAVE DECISIVE IMPORTANCE”
“Speaking at the panel ”How to Develop Health Tourism?“, President of the World Health Tourism Council, Deputy Dr. Ahmet Savaşan said that in order for health tourism to develop; ”improving the infrastructure“ in order to increase the number, quality and capacity of institutions providing health services, expanding ”accreditation and certification“ in order to increase the training and competence of employees working in the health tourism sector, ”competitive pricing“ and ”determining the legal framework and clarifying the legislation“ in order to be preferred in health services, ”carrying out promotional and marketing activities“ in target countries based on accurate and up-to-date information in order to increase demand, and ”providing airline transportation and quality accommodation facilities" to health tourists under appropriate conditions are of vital importance.
HEALTH TOURISM INCLUDES 8 SEGMENTS
In his speech, Ahmet Savaşan also pointed out that the World Health Tourism Council (www.globalhtc.org), a multinational organization of 56 countries that provides leadership and support to the sector in advancing health tourism policies internationally, advocating for responsible health tourism and promoting health tourism as a driving force towards economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability, recognized that Health Tourism covers eight segments at the Global Healthcare Travel Forum in 2017. Savaşan said that these eight segments are medical, dental, spa and thermal, wellness, gastronomy and health nutrition, sports tourism, barrier-free, advanced active life tourism, including health protection and promotion as well as health restoration.
