A SWOT-AHP Approach for Assessment of Medical Tourism Sector in Turkey

Abstract

Each year, the citizens of many countries in the world visit different countries for the treatment of health problems. Turkey that offers quality, technology-driven and reasonably priced treatment service within the scope of Medical Tourism can complete this integrated process with its tourism riches. The advantages and disadvantages of Turkey in medical tourism have been examined within the scope of alternatives by taking opportunities that may arise in the future into account. The strengths and weaknesses of the sector in Turkey and opportunities and threats have been systematically analyzed with the SWOT analysis built on the numerical basis. The SWOT analysis is a systematic tool used for the determination of opportunities and threats along with the expression of strengths and weaknesses of an enterprise or a sector. Due to the fact that the significance levels of the factor elements in the classic SWOT matrix are uncertain, it was used in this study together with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Due to the eigenvector calculation performed by building the paired comparison matrices with AHP, it has become possible to weight SWOT factors and elements. The objective of this study is to present an application related to the improving of the quantitative aspect of the SWOT analysis frequently used in strategic planning.