SAĞLIK TURİZMİ GELİRLERİ VE EKONOMİK BÜYÜME İLİŞKİSİNİN FOURIER YAKLAŞIMI İLE AMPİRİK OLARAK İNCELENMESİ.

Health tourism is expressed as organized travel outside the local environment in order to protect, improve or renew one's mental and physical health. Especially in recent years, serious problems are experienced in the global production and supply chain due to the COVID-19 epidemic in the world and the Russia-Ukraine war. While these problems are deeply felt in many sectors, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries, the health tourism sector has also been adversely affected by the events. The decrease in international mobility due to travel restrictions and security reasons has led to a decrease in health tourism revenues. Health tourism, where seasonal effects are not experienced, can positively affect economic growth in one of the world's most important health tourism destinations, such as Turkey, through foreign currency inflows. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of health tourism on economic growth, especially in Turkey, which is one of the most important health tourism destinations in the world. In the study using quarterly time series data between 2012Q1-2022Q4, the Fourier Bootstrap ARDL method developed by Yılancı, Bozoklu and Gorus (2020) was used to reveal the existence of a long-term relationship. In addition, Least Squares method (OLS) and Fully Modified Least Squares (FMOLS) methods were applied for parameter coefficient estimations. Our findings, while revealing the existence of a long-term relationship, showed that increases in health tourism income positively affect economic growth. In the light of the findings, it is predicted that the countries that take into account the developments in the field of health tourism and invest in this field will take a significant share from the health tourism revenues among the factors that increase the country's welfare in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]