HEALTH TOURISM: FROM ECONOMICS TO ANTHROPOLOGY

Abstract

The context of the COVID-19 pandemic has put tourism on the ropes, and has placed health at the centre of the concerns of governments, families and individuals. For this reason, there are those who think that "health tourism" will be one of the branches that will be able to recover the soonest. This conviction is based on the fact that on the one hand, there is a fall in employment, the incomes of large population groups have decreased and, for those who require health services of not very low cost, there is a need to seek even lower prices. On the other hand, local and formal health services have shown their weaknesses. For these reasons, people look for options outside their usual places of residence and even look for alternative services, linked to holistic currents of care. Such currents are so attractive, that they pretend to act on the duality of the body of mind. This article, using a mixed methodology, tries to elucidate the trends of health tourism today, taking as case studies various providers of health services that serve these populations from other places and that commonly become true flows of tourists.