Abstract

MOL-BESSA, Altamiro Sérgio  and  MACHADO DE CASTRO-SIMAO, Karina. Health tour and Brazilian metropolises' entrepreneurialism. Bitácora Urbano Territorial [online]. 2017, vol.27, n.3, pp.43-49. ISSN 0124-7913.  https://doi.org/10.15446/bitacora.v27n3.49321.

One of the most recent strategies used by metropolises to attract investments and tourists has been to encourage the construction of health centers of excellence, which offer high-complexity services, called health tourism or medical tourism. Besides their own medical facilities, these centers have schools, research and convention centers, hospitality services and squares, among other things, and its continuing increase goes on redesigning urban areas well-provided with infrastructure, in the metropolises where they are located. The present article has sought to investigate the phenomenon of development of health tourism in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, and, to do so, has used data collected by researchers of the Urban Planning and Tourism Laboratory of the Federal University of Minas Gerais. The results show that in these cities a select group of medical centers has been investing in the expansion of their services, looking for highly-valued areas, with cultural and leisure facilities, easily accessible, and close to shopping centers, hotels and heliports. In this way, these business centers, with support from the Government, have become agents of the recent urban transformations in three of the main Brazilian metropolises, and the new players in their process of entrepre-neurialism and sales.

Keywords : urban planning; cities' entrepreneurialism; urban transformations; tourism.

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