Booming Healthcare Sector in Turkey

• 2020-05-05 11:06:31
• Mark Telos

Medical tourism has become a booming sector in Turkey with 700,000 people visiting the country in 2017.

In 2008, around 75,000 health tourists visited Turkey and that figure has increased tenfold in 10 years.

Turkey Health Tourism Sector had expected 850,000 visitors for medical tourism in 2018, it [the figure] could have approached a million.

The chairman of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB), Firuz Baglikaya, said the aim was to increase the number of health tourists visiting Turkey to two million under the country's Vision 2023 plan.

He said the size of the global health tourism market was approaching the $100-billion mark and added that 11 million people travelled around the world to receive treatment and healthcare.

Baglikaya said, “[The] health sector has been growing [by] 25 percent every year. Spending on healthcare per person is about $6,500 in the world [on average in a year].”

He added that under Turkey's Vision 2023 plan,  $10 billion had been set for the thermal health sector alone.

In 2016, about 700,000 hair transplant surgeries were performed around the globe. Some 100,000 of those were done in Turkey. 

Source: TRT World - https://www.trtworld.com/turkey/turkey-set-to-expand-medical-tourism-sector-19271