Medical Tourism Rises up Again in Turkey after the Coronavirus

Medical tourism is a developing industry and Turkey has been a leading actor for the past decade. Short/No waiting lists, English speaking stuff, lower medical treatment costs compared to European countries, certificated hospitals with qualified doctors and technological equipment, natural places also used for treatment and the oppurtunity to combine treatment with holiday has lead Turkey to shine as a star in the medical tourism industry and attract millions of tourists annually in the past decade. (Over 3 million patients have been treated in the last 19 years. Annual average revenue is 1 billion USD)

However, medical tourism has also suffered from Coronavirus restrictions like many other industries since March 2020. Due to travel restrictions, no new patients have been accepted into the country and the industry nearly stopped. In June, the government has declared new decisions to lift restrictions imposed on receiving patients from outside the country which have enabled Turkey to accept visitors from 31 different countries including: Iraq, Libya, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Greece, Ukraine, Russia, Djibouti, Kosovo, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Somalia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Algeria, Germany, England, Netherlands, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. These patients coming from air will be able to enter Turkey thorugh either Ankara Esenboğa or Istanbul airport. Other medical travellers coming from land will be able to enter Turkey through three different borders including Kapıkule (Bulgaria), Sarp (Georgia),  and Habur border (Iraq). The patients and the companions will be tested on the borders or the airport and they will be transferred to government certified hospitals.

The hospitals accepting the patients will be obligated to follow the below procedures:

• These hospitals will need to maintain computered tomography and magnetic resonance machines.

• In the hospital licence, cardiovascular diseases, internal medicine, child health, infection health and clinical microbiology must be present.

• One floor of each certified hospital will be used only for medical tourism and no other patients will enter this floor.

• The patients will be transferred directly to the hospitals before they go to their hotels.

With the normalization moves, both the tourism and medical tourism industries have started to liven up and new tourists and patients have started to come to Turkey. (1.8 regular tourists have visited Antalya up until September) Although the numbers are expectedly lower compared to 2019, growing participation is hopeful. According to the sector representatives, “the tourists have started coming to Turkey to make themselves more beautiful”. DEİK Health Commission Member Dr Servet Terziler states that %60 of the targeted revenues have been reached in the last 3 months and tourist from Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Ukraine have been treated since and that the expection is to reach %50 of 2019 year-end. Dr Terziler also states that having to stay in quarantine 15 days after going back to their countries is not a problem for the tourists since they need time to recover after the surgery and they are happy spend this time home in quarantine.

Turkey Medical Tourism Developing Council President Emin Çakmak states that although 3 months was a closed period, medical tourism has started to liven up since June up to today. Estetics and hair implantations are the most demanded treatments in this period. He also states that it is possible that regular tourism can be restricted from time to time but medical tourism should never be restricted under any circumstances. He also expects Turkey to reach %50 revenue compared to 2019.

On September 9 2020, Medicana Group who has offered treatment services to patients from 164 different countries since 2008, has opened a new facility with 222 beds in İzmir, Turkey with a total cost of 110 million USD. Chairman Dr. Hüseyin Bozkurt has stated that they will use the recent robotic and new treatment technologies in their new hospital and their aim is to increase medical tourism in Turkey. He also added the hospital will be sterilized with the newest techniques and patients will not have hygiene doubts.

To conclude, it is reasonable to say that tourists (both medical and regular) have started coming from all over the world to Turkey after June and these numbers are expected to grow until year-end. The government has taken all the precautions and measures to make sure that the visitors are well taken care of in certified hospitals with qualified physicians. We expect all the patients to Turkey as our host  who look forward to being treated with a low cost and advanced care.