THE EVALUATION OF THE DIGITAL MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF THERMAL FACILITIES AND JCI ACCREDITED HOSPITALS IN TERMS OF HEALTH TOURISM

Year 2018, , 108 - 121, 12.09.2018

Dilaver Tengilimoğlu , Alper Guzel , Cansu Aykan Emre Tengilimoğlu Elif Boduroğlu

https://doi.org/10.31201/ijhmt.454039

Cited By: 2

Abstract

Promoting the products and services to the people located in different areas of the World and interacting with the target markets have always been a hard process for the enterprises that operate in the field of health tourism. With the developments in information and communication Technologies, internet and mobile Technologies has smoothed the ways of accessing information, shopping, socializing, having fun, and seeking for information without any time or place constraints with very low costs. The enterprises which want to benefit from the digitalized World have started to move their marketing activities to digital platforms. In this context, the aim of this study was identified as to evaluate the digital marketing activities of thermal facilities and JCI accredited hospitals, and to make a comparison between them. This study was designed as a descriptive study. Content analyzing method was used to evaluate the digital marketing activities of thermal facilities and JCI accredited hospitals. Totally, 73 thermal facilities’ and 30 JCI accredited hospitals’ digital marketing activities were evaluated. The collected data was coded by the researcher. Frequency and percentage distributions were calculated. It has been found that 38,4%of the thermal facilities do not have a web page in English or in another language. Also, it has been seen that, opposite to accredited hospitals, there was no enough information about the staff. It can be concluded for the enterprises that operate in the field of health tourism to use web sites and social media channels more efficient. Efficient use of these channels can allow the health tourism enterprises to interact with their target market through producing content according to the needs or wants of them. In addition, sharing information and creating content can be considered as a strategy to pull the target market.

Keywords

Health tourism, thermal facilities, JCI, digital marketing

References

• Cormany, D., & Baloglu, S. (2011). Medical travel facilitator websites: An exploratory study of web page contents and services offered to the prospective medical tourist. Tourism Management, 32, 709-716. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2010.02.008
• Crooks, V. A., Turner, L., Snyder, J., Johnston, R., & Kingsbury, P. (2011). Promoting medical tourism to India: Messages, images, and the marketing of international patient travel. Social Science & Medicine, 72, 726-732. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.12.022
• Güzel, A. (2014, 12 30). Sağlık Kuruluşlarında Sosyal Medya Pazarlama Faaliyetleri İle Memnuniyet, Marka Güveni ve Marka Sadakati Arasındaki İlişkilerin Yönelik Bir Alan Çalışması. Ankara: Gazi Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü. Yayınlanmamış Doktora Tezi.
• Güzel, A. (2017). Sağlık Turizminde Dijital Pazarlama. D. Tengilimoğlu içinde, Sağlık Turizmi (s. 297-328). Ankara: Siyasal Kitabevi.
• Heung, V. C., Kucukusta, D., & Song, H. (2011). Medical tourism development in Hong Kong: An assessment of the barriers. Journal of Tourism Management, 32, 995-1005.
• Holder, D. (2008). What do we mean by direct, data and digital marketing? M. J. Baker, & S. Hart içinde, The Marketing Book (s. 372-390). Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier.
• Hopkins, L., Labonte´, R., & Runnels, V. (2010). Medical tourism today: What is the state of existing knowledge? Journal of Public Health Policy, 31(2), 185-198.JCI. (2018). Who is JCI. 31 03, 2018 tarihinde Joint Commission International: https://www.jointcommissioninternational.org/about-jci/who-is-jci/ adresinden alındı
• Kannan, P., & Li, H. (2016). Digital marketing: A framework, review and research agenda. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 34, 22-45. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2016.11.006
• Kemp, S. (2017, 01 24). Digital in 2017: Global Overview. 03 11, 2018 tarihinde We Are Social: https://wearesocial.com/special-reports/digital-in-2017-global-overview adresinden alındı
• Kemp, S. (2017, 08 10). Three billion people now use social media. 08 10, 2017 tarihinde We are social: https://wearesocial.com/blog/2017/08/three-billion-people-now-use-social-media adresinden alındı
• Khan, A., & Khan, R. (2012). Embracing new media in Fiji: the way forward for social network marketing and communication strategies. Strategic Direction, 4, 3-5.
• KTB. (tarih yok). Türkiye'de Sağlık ve Termal Turizm. 03 31, 2018 tarihinde T.C. KÜLTÜR VE TURİZM BAKANLIĞI YATIRIM VE İŞLETMELER GENEL MÜDÜRLÜĞÜ: http://yigm.kulturturizm.gov.tr/TR,11479/turkiyede-saglik-ve-termal-turizm.html adresinden alındı
• Lunt, N., Horsfall, D., & Hanefeld, J. (2016). Medical tourism: A snapshot of evidence on treatment abroad. Maturitas, 88, 37-44. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2016.03.001
• Mucan, B., & Özeltürkay, E. Y. (2014). Social Media Creates Competitive Advantages: How Turkish Banks Use This Power? A Content Analysis of Turkish Banks through Their Webpages. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 148, 137-145. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.027
• Osatuyi, B. (2013). Information sharing on social media sites. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 2622-2631.
• Resmi Gazete. (2018, 07 01). Kaplıcalar Yönetmeliği. 03 30, 2018 tarihinde Halk Sağlığı Genel Müdürlüğü, Çevre Sağlığı Daire Başkanlığı: http://cevresagligi.thsk.saglik.gov.tr/2013-08-28-13-18-43/mevzuat/972-kapl%C4%B1calar-y%C3%B6netmeli%C4%9Fi.html adresinden alındı
• Saturk. (tarih yok). Türkiye'de Termal Sağlık Turizmi. 31 03, 2018 tarihinde Sağlık Turizmi Koordinasyon Kurulu: http://www.saturk.gov.tr/images/pdf/tyst/07.pdf adresinden alındı
• Statista.com. (2018, 01 27). Most famous social network sites worldwide as of January 2018, ranked by number of active users (in millions). 03 30, 2018 tarihinde Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ adresinden alındı
• Wagle, S. (2013). Web-based medical facilitators in medical tourism: the third party in decision-making. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, 10(1), 28-33. doi:https://doi.org/10.20529/IJME.2013.006
• Yasmin, A., Tasneem, S., & Fatema, K. (2015). Effectiveness of Digital Marketing in the Challenging Age: An Empirical Study. International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, 1(5), 69-80.
• Yeoh, E., Othman, K., & Ahmad, H. (2013). Understanding medical tourists: Word-of-mouth and viral marketing as potent marketing tools. Tourism Management, 34, 196-201. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2012.04.010