Data from the Health Ministry showed that 1.5 million foreign nationals visited Türkiye to receive health services. This industry aims to reach out to as many as 60 countries to attract patients. In 2002, the share of health expenditures in Türkiye’s overall tourism was only 1 percent but increased to 4.5 percent in 2020.
Medical tourism in Türkiye has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, competing with other, more well-known medical tourism destinations at the close of the first decade of the new century.
What makes Turkey the ideal place for hair transplantation, dentistry, and plastic surgery? Are the prices cheap, is the service reliable or is it just for the service overall?
The answer is very easy: The combination.
According to Dr Burak Tuncer, the Medical Director of Esteworld, one of the biggest health tourism companies in Turkey, people ask for a premium service at medium level of price and they would also want to trust the experts.
At an Istanbul health complex, over 10.000 m2 establishment, Dr Burak Tuncer explained the history of health tourism expansion in Turkey.
“When my father, Dr Mustafa Tuncer, the founder of Esteworld, observed that all Turkish celebrity travels to different countries for plastic surgery, upon seeing that, my father said one day I’ll make celebrities to come here for hair transplantation and other medical services, some said it is middle eastern country, how can you persuade people to come and get medical service here?
Now, you can see Esteworld is the place to get all kinds of treatments. Most famous celebrities come to Türkiye for medical services.”
Mr Tuncer also highlighted that since 1996, everything has changed in Turkey, not only people from a short distance, but they are welcoming the patients even from the US and Canada.
While explaining 27 years of history of Esteworld, he noted that they always worked on patient’s satisfaction.
“We believe the priority of this job is for our patients to be happy. ” said Mr Tuncer.
According to a report by the Health Tourism Department of the Health Services General Directorate, most patients from the U.S. prefer Türkiye because treatment expenses are 35 percent to 60 percent cheaper in Türkiye than in their country.
“While high premium service should be accessible by everybody, the service should not be compatible with the price in the same way. Within high quality supervised rooms in hospital and surgery rooms, we always set out for the comfort and happiness of our patients.”
“On the contrary of some real cheap services of some notorious clinics, we cannot let human life be risked.” He added.
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