@article{2018,title={THE EFFECT OF COUNTRIES’ HEALTHCARE SERVICE STANDARDS ON HEALTH TOURISM},abstractNode={The concepts of health and tourism, which had always been regarded as two distant sectors, have now come together and turned into a tourism type that helps enhancing living standards of people; Hospitality Bridging Healthcare (H2H) (DeMicco, 2017). In this context, tourism, carrying positive messages, acts as a medium that brings people and healthcare together. Health is no longer regarded as the opposite of illness; it is now perceived as and called wellness, “the state of being in good health, and feeling good”. Within this context, besides recuperating, we have also become familiar with the concepts, such as keeping healthy, becoming healthier, and enhancing health. Although there are various types of health tourism, medical tourism and wellness tourism stand out among the others in international health tourism industry. Especially medical tourism is a type of tourism product, which is included in economic programs of both developed and developing countries due to its huge amount of added value it creates. Due to the reasons, such as advancements in technology and means of transportation, extending lifetime of humans, increasing tourism awareness and urbanization, people are now participating in various tourism activities. Although these are some of the main factors that affect the development of tourism, they also contribute to development of health tourism. This study aims to reveal whether the healthcare systems and health conditions of the tourism destinations have an impact on competitiveness in health tourism. Here, the following hypothesis may be suggested: “The competitiveness in health tourism depends on healthcare systems and health conditions of the countries.” Based on this hypothesis, the author both explained and described the health tourism and suggested answers to this hypothesis in this study. at the end of this study, it was observed that the developing countries offer health tourism through private enterprises, and it was found that this does not reflect the general healthcare standards of the said country.},author={Mehmet Han ERGÜVEN},year={2018},journal={The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies}}