Tourexpi
“Türkiye has become one of the top 10 countries
receiving most foreign patients from around the world,” Elif Ural, board member
at the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB), told Anadolu.
“In the ranking of health tourism in countries, the
top consists of Mexico, India, Thailand, Brazil, Türkiye, and Singapore,” said
Ural.
Ural stated that health tourism in the world is
categorized under three sections - medical, thermal, and elderly-disabled
tourism.
“As the TURSAB board, we are putting in efforts to
work together with our TURSAB Nature and Adventure Tourism Specialized
Presidency, as we aim to further develop our work within the scope of ‘the
Century of Türkiye’,” she said.
Ural mentioned that there is a rapid growth in the
number of hospitals, medical centers, doctors, healthcare personnel, and travel
agencies, all of which play active roles in the rise of health tourism, thanks
to Türkiye’s tourism infrastructure.
She highlighted that TURSAB carries out effective
operations for the development of health tourism and they work in cooperation
with all public institutions and organizations in the field, especially with
the management of the Turkish state-owned healthcare firm USHAS.
She cited the two separate wide-ranged health
tourism workshops organized by the association with expert participants,
saying: “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. We will carry out a series of operations, ranging from
inventory organization to providing special training to our members, from marketing
strategies aimed for tourism of the regions to promotional planning, and more.”
‘29 countries aimed for health tourism’
Ural stated that USHAS targets 29 countries for
health tourism to Türkiye, which are the UK, Germany, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Serbia,
Kosovo, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain,
Algeria, Morocco, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Senegal, Mauritania, and Nigeria.
She emphasized that Türkiye’s health tourism
revenues have been growing steadily, except for the decline in 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“Health tourism revenues were at $1.49 billion in
2019, though this figure reached $2.3 billion in 2023, according to TurkStat
data. However, despite the pleasing increase, we know that we still have a long
way to go, and as TURSAB, we will continue to put in the effort to utilize
Türkiye’s potential,” she said.
Ural stated that foreign patients visiting Türkiye
come within the framework of medical tourism.
“Patients coming to Türkiye receive treatment
mostly from units, such as gynecology, internal medicine, ophthalmology,
medical biochemistry, general surgery, dentistry, orthopedics, traumatology,
infectious diseases, and ear-nose-throat branches, according to data from
USHAS. Apart from these, we also attract great interest in the fields of
aesthetics and hair transplantation; however, we do not have data on the income
items of incoming patients, as they are undisclosed,” she said.
“Foreign patients go around the city where they are
staying, shop, and taste different flavors from our cuisine under the
conditions permitted by the treatment. Those who come for aesthetic and hair
transplantation reasons stay in accommodation facilities, as well as those who
come for thermal tourism, medical SPA, and elderly and disabled tourism mainly
use accommodation facilities. We can say that it is a segment that attracts
attention in general because it has a high added value,” she added.
Image
Credit: © AA
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