Turkiye raked in $1.6 billion in the first nine months of 2022 from health tourism, according to data from USHAŞ.
From January to September, nearly 870,000 foreigners arrived in Turkiye to receive health services.
The most preferred clinical branches by international patients are gynecology,internal diseases, ophthalmology, medical biochemistry, general surgery, dentistry, orthopedics and traumatology, infectious diseases and otorhinolaryngology.
Revenues from health expenditures of foreign nationals was $638 million in 2015, when the number of health tourists stood at a little more than 395,000.
Health tourism revenues and the number of foreigners arriving in Türkiye to receive health services increased steadily in the following four years. Revenues climbed to $715 million in 2016, rising further to $827 million in 2017 and $863 million in 2019.
In 2019, health tourism revenues breached the $1 billion mark for the first time, amounting to $1.49 billion. That year, more than 700,000 patients received treatment in Türkiye.
“In 2020, 407,423 patients preferred Türkiye to receive health services as the global pandemic caused a noticeable decrease in the number of health tourists,” USHAŞ said.
The amount of tourism income from foreign visitors and citizens residing abroad visiting for health tourism and medical reasons decreased to $1.16 billion in 2020.
The share of health expenditures in tourism revenues was 1 percent, but it increased to 4.5 percent in 2020.
Last year, 670,730 people received health services and the amount of health tourism income amounted to $1.73 billion, according to USHAŞ.
USHAŞ was established in 2019 under the roof of the Health Ministry to promote the services offered in the field of international health services in Türkiye, and support and coordinate the activities of public and private sectors towards health tourism.