The Turkish Ministry of Health has set a target for 2030 of 2 million international patients. It’s wise to treat this with caution: data and claims from the various competing Turkish organisations involved in medical travel have never agreed, and this target is not just medical tourists.
Data released by the Turkish Ministry of Health shows that in 2018 there were 420,000 international patients.
This compares to Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) numbers of 551,748 and Turkish Healthcare Travel Council (THTC) estimates of 800,000. The only thing that is common on all three is that they are international patients rather than only medical tourists.
The Turkish Ministry of Health says that international patients in 2018 generated estimated revenue of US$1.5 billion. TurkStat agrees with this figure but THTC claims US$8 billion. The latest Ministry of Health revenue target for 2030 is US$7.5 billion.
The Turkish Ministry of Health target for 2030 is 2 million international patients. THTC and the Turkish Hoteliers Federation have identical targets.
The minister of health argues that the five-fold growth can be achieved through city hospitals becoming the focal points of health tourism, and international patient units are being set up in these hospitals. Turkey currently has nine city hospitals, but will have 20 in total by the year of 2020, while the tender process for an additional 11 hospitals is still ongoing.
For further analysis of the medical travel sector in Turkey, visit the IMTJ country profile.
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