The Healing Touch

The healthcare sector of Türkiye is home to a booming tourist industry that welcomes thousands of visitors every year

With its new and modern city hospitals, geographical location, four-hour flight distance to 57 countries, short waiting times, new and advanced medical technology and devices, historical, cultural and touristic rich texture, comfortable patient rooms, quality healthcare, qualified healthcare professionals, Türkiye has taken its place among the lead¬ing countries in health tourism. The country is one of the rare countries that demonstrate the ability to provide services in all categories of health tourism, as defined under the four headings of medical, thermal, elderly and disabled.

Türkiye is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of the richness and potential of geothermal resources and ranks first in Europe in terms of resource potential and third in thermal spring facilities.

The thermal water potential, which has effective therapeutic properties thanks to its high mineralisation content, combined with rich cultural, natural and climatic features, offers a favourable environment for senior tourism and wellness, as well as thermal health tourism.

In order to facilitate access to healthcare for people visiting Türkiye as part of health tourism or tourist health, ‘interpreting and call centre of the International Patient Assistance Unit (IPAU)’ operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in 6 (six) languages: German, Arabic, English, Russian, Persian, and French, and can be reached at 0 850 288 38 38.

HEALTH TOURISM

In the context of health tourism, 720,556 applications were made to institutions with international health tourism authorisation certificates in 2020, while 1,518,966 applications were made in 2021.

The departments that are in demand include medical microbiology, gynecology and obstetrics, internal diseases, dentistry, general surgery, ophthalmology, infectious diseases and clinical, microbiology, orthopedics and traumatology, pediatrics, and medical oncology.

Each year, thousands of visitors come to the country for the purpose of healthcare. The highest number of visitors to Türkiye come from the Republic of Iraq, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the State of Libya, the Republic of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, the Russian Federation, the Federal Republic of Somalia, the United States of America, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic Of Bulgaria, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.