Turkey Became The Favorite Country of Health Tourism

Turkey has become the favorite country of health tourism. In 2020, 1 million 300 thousand people chose Turkey for health tourism.

The Chairman of the Thermal Health and Tourism Association (TESTUD) Yavuz Yılık, informing that 1 million 300 thousand visitors preferred Turkey for health tourism last year, said, “In 2020, the top 3 countries receiving healthcare services in Turkey, were Iraq, the Federal Republic of Somalia and the Syrian Arab Republic, respectively.” Yavuz Yılık presented information on health tourism data in 2020, which passed with the new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic. Yılık said that Turkey hosted 700 thousand patients for health services in 2019 and that patients come from Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan respectively, and explained that along with foreign visitors coming for health tourism and citizens residing abroad, the tourism income amounted to 1 billion 65 million 105 thousand dollars in 2019. Yılık stated that in 2020, compared to the previous year, there was an increase in the number of patients coming from abroad to receive healthcare services due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic.   Istanbul is at the Top of the Most Preferred Cities Yavuz Yılık, Chairman of the Thermal Health and Tourism Association (TESTUD), said, "Last year, 1 million 300 thousand patients preferred Turkey to receive health services. In 2020, the top 3 countries receiving healthcare services in Turkey were Iraq, the Federal Republic of Somalia and the Syrian Arab Republic, respectively. The tourism income obtained from foreign visitors coming for health tourism and medical reasons and citizens residing abroad increased to 1 billion 978 million 52 thousand dollars in 2020. " Emphasizing that Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya, İzmir, Erzurum and Van are among the cities most preferred by international patients, Yılık stated that the most preferred clinical branches by international patients are gynecology, ophthalmology, chest, general surgery, internal medicine, orthopedics and traumatology, medical oncology, cardiology, otorhinolaryngology and urology departments. Yılık stated that they hope that the number of those who prefer Turkey in health tourism will increase in 2021 and underlined that vaccination of tourism professionals will be an important factor in choosing Turkish tourism.   Source: TRT