“Türkiye has emerged as one of the top 10 destinations for international patients worldwide,” Elif Ural, a board member of TURSAB (the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies), said to Anadolu.
According to Ural, the top five nations in the world for health tourism are Mexico, India, Thailand, Brazil, Turkey, and Singapore.
According to Ural, there are three categories of health tourism in the world: medical, thermal, and senior-disabled travel.
“We are working hard as the TURSAB board to collaborate with our TURSAB Nature and Adventure Tourism Specialized Presidency to advance our work within the framework of ‘the Century of Türkiye,'” the speaker stated.
According to Ural, Turkey’s tourist infrastructure has contributed significantly to the country’s rapid expansion in the number of hospitals, medical facilities, physicians, healthcare workers, and travel agencies—all of which actively contribute to the growth of health tourism.
She emphasized that TURSAB collaborates with all relevant governmental institutions and organizations, particularly the management of the Turkish state-owned healthcare company USHAS and that it conducts efficient operations for the growth of health tourism.
“Last year, we organized health tourism information conferences in five different cities, specifically Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya, and Gaziantep, in which we aim to attract high-income tourists to Türkiye in our ‘Century of Tourism’ project,” she said, citing the two distinct, comprehensive health tourism workshops held by the association with expert participants. We will conduct several activities, such as organizing our inventory, giving our members specialized training, developing marketing plans for local tourism, organizing events, and more.
According to Ural, USHAS is targeting the following 29 nations: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Senegal, Mauritania, Nigeria, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Kazakhstan.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused a reduction in health tourism profits, but overall, she noted, these revenues have been gradually increasing in Turkey.
Revenues from health tourism were $1.49 billion in 2019, however, according to TurkStat data, this amount increased to $2.3 billion in 2023. Though the growth is pleasing, we recognize that there is still more work to be done, and as TURSAB, we will keep working to realize Türkiye’s potential,” the speaker stated.
According to Ural, foreign visitors to Turkey fall under the category of medical tourists.
“According to data from USHAS, patients travelling to Türkiye are treated mostly by units that specialize in gynaecology, internal medicine, ophthalmology, medical biochemistry, general surgery, dentistry, orthopaedics, traumatology, infectious diseases, and ear, nose, and throat branches. In addition to this, we also see a lot of interest in the areas of hair transplantation and aesthetics. Nevertheless, because entering patients’ income details is kept private, we are unable to provide data on them, the spokesperson stated.
When the therapy permits, foreign patients explore the city in which they are staying, go shopping, and sample various cuisines from our cuisine. Accommodations are reserved for those who come for medical spa treatments, thermal tourism, and senior and disabled travel, as well as for aesthetic and hair transplantation purposes. Because of its great added value, we can claim that this segment generally garners attention,” she continued.
