Turkey’s health tourism sector worth $2bn in 2023

Unsplash/Olga Guryanova

• Seventh in global rankings
• 175 institutions active in sector
• 1.4m health tourists last year

Turkey’s health tourism sector generated revenue of $2.3 billion in 2023, data released by the Ministry of Trade reveals.

Health service exports surged from $1.9 billion in 2022 to $2.3 billion in 2023, driven by an influx of 1.4 million health tourists, placing Turkey seventh in the global health tourism rankings.

The country has 40 health institutions holding internationally recognised accreditation, an advantage for medical tourists worldwide.

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Most of the visitors came from Germany, Russia, the UK, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and the Middle East.  

The state-owned healthcare company Ushas said the most preferred clinical branches by international patients are gynaecology, internal diseases, ophthalmology, dentistry, orthopaedics and infectious diseases.

The ministry said that there were 175 institutions active in the health tourism sector on the internet portal Heal In Turkiye, and applications to join the portal were increasing day by day.

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Heal In Turkiye was launched by the Ministry of Trade and Service Exporters Association to bring together Turkish health providers under a single platform. 

Financial support provided by the trade ministry to companies operating in the health services export sector in 2023 rose almost fourfold to $22 million (733 million lira), the statement said. 

Turkey’s tourism revenues also hit a record high of $54.3 billion in 2023, up 17 percent from $46.48 billion in 2022, Turkish Statistical Institute data showed earlier this year.

In the fourth quarter of last year, tourism revenues climbed 6.8 percent to $12.3 billion. 

The country is also upgrading and expanding its second busiest airport, Antalya, and secured an additional $463 million financing for the project last week.

The first phase of development will include the expansion of Terminal 2 and the construction of new general aviation and cargo terminals. Work is expected to be completed in 2025.