TURSAB Board Member Elif Ural said that Turkiye is among the top 10 countries that accept the most patients in the world in health tourism.
Elif Ural, Member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB), said that as TURSAB, they care about the development of health tourism in Turkiye.
Stating that health tourism in the world is discussed under three headings as medical, thermal and elderly-disabled tourism, Ural said, “As the management, we are carrying out important studies together with our TURSAB Specialization Directorate. We aim to further develop our work in this field within the framework of our ‘Turkish Century’ perspective.”
“We are talking about an increasing graph”
Ural plays an active role in the rise of health tourism thanks to the rapidly increasing number of hospitals, medical centers, well-equipped doctors, medical personnel and travel agencies, and Turkiye’s tourism infrastructure. We are talking about an increasing graph. This is a very important development. Turkiye is among the top 10 countries in the world that accept the most patients. “Mexico, India, Thailand, Brazil, Turkiye and Singapore are at the top of the list of countries that accept the most patients in the field of health tourism in the world.”
Stating that they, as TURSAB, carry out effective work for the development of the field, Ural stated that they work in cooperation with all public institutions and organizations operating in this field, especially the management of International Health Services Inc. (USHAS).
“We aim to spread tourism, which is confined to 4-5 cities, throughout the country and over 12 months.”
Ural reminded that the Union had previously organized two separate Health Tourism Workshops with a wide scope and high-level participants, and said:
“Last year, we held Health Tourism Information Meetings in 5 different cities: Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and Gaziantep. We aim to attract high-income tourists to our country in our ‘Tourism Century’ project that we launched. With the ‘Tourism Century’, we aim to spread tourism, which is confined to 4-5 cities, throughout the country and over 12 months. In this context, we will carry out a series of activities, from inventory work to providing special training to our members, from marketing strategies appropriate to the tourism potential of the regions to promotional planning, from participating in tourism specialization fairs to organizing destination-based tourism workshops.”
“There are 29 countries in the target”
Stating that there are 29 countries in USHAS’s target countries strategy, Ural listed these countries. “England, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 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, Nigeria.”
Ural emphasized that Turkiye’s income from health tourism in the last 5 years has increased steadily, except for the decline due to the epidemic in 2020. “According to TUIK data, health tourism revenue, which was $1.49 billion in 2019, reached 2.3 billion in 2023. Although this increase is pleasing, we know that we still have a long way to go, considering Turkiye’s potential. As TURSAB, we continue our work to evaluate this potential.”
Stating that patients visiting Turkiye within the scope of health tourism come within the scope of medical tourism, Ural concluded his words as follows:
“According to the data announced by USHAS, patients coming to our country mostly receive treatment in gynecology, internal medicine, ophthalmology, medical biochemistry, general surgery, dentistry, orthopedics and traumatology, infectious diseases and ear-nose-throat branches. Apart from these, as a country, we also see great interest in the fields of aesthetics and hair transplantation. However, we do not have data on the income items of the incoming patients. These data are not disclosed. The patient who comes to our country within the scope of health tourism has the opportunity to visit the city, shop and taste different flavors from our cuisine, under the conditions allowed by the treatment. Those who come for reasons such as aesthetics and hair transplantation stay in accommodation facilities. Again, those who come within the scope of thermal tourism, medical SPA and elderly and disabled tourism mainly use accommodation facilities. We can say that it is a segment that attracts general attention because its added value is high.”
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz