Speaking to Anadolu Ajans about his participation at the 21st HIMSS Eurasia Digital Health Conference and Exhibition, hosted this year by the Ministry of Health in the Kundu tourism facilities in Antalya, USHAŞ General Manager Mehmet Ali Kılıçkaya stated that Türkiye is one of the most successful countries in the world in the field of health tourism.
With the transformation in the healthcare sector, Kılıçkaya noted that public and private hospitals are making critical investments into healthcare infrastructures, and that Türkiye has begun to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health tourism.
Stating his belief that growth in this area will continue, Kılıçkaya said: “In recent years, we have begun to offer significant health tourism services in Türkiye, supported by the digitalization and investments made into public, city and private hospitals. In 2019, Türkiye attracted more than 600,000 medical tourists, generating over $1 billion in revenues. In 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak brought about a slight decrease in this figure, but we are seeing recovery again in 2021.”
Kılıçkaya pointed out that Türkiye performs well in many branches of medicine, and very well in all vital branches, including aesthetics, surgery, dentistry and ophthalmology.
“WE WANT TO TURN TÜRKİYE INTO THE WORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL HEALTH TOURISM BRAND”
Emphasizing that patients from many different countries are choosing Türkiye for treatment, Kılıçkaya said:
“Our close proximity, affordable prices and quality service stand out as advantages in medical tourism in Türkiye. Our goal is to become a global leader in health tourism through investment and digitalization. USHAŞ’s founding goal is to make Türkiye the most successful brand in medical tourism in the world. Digital transformation is crucial in health, as medical tourists in other countries first send their medical reports for a second opinion. As this whole process is managed remotely, the more hospitals and countries invest in digitalization, the better their foreign connections will be. Digitalization can be used in promotional and digital marketing activities to attract more medical tourists, but also to manage operationally successful processes.”
Emphasizing the significance of digital transformation for health tourism, Kılıçkaya said: “We have set five-year and 10-year targets for health tourism, and we are looking achieve a turnover of $10 billion in this sector. We predict that in 2022 we will easily exceed our 2019 health tourism figures through the works of both public and private hospitals.”
“THE UK IS AN IMPORTANT HEALTH TOURISM MARKET”
Remarking on the importance of publicity, Kılıçkaya said that every hospital and private health institution play a role in activities in this area, which are supported by the Ministry of Trade.
Commenting on the latest expansions in the sector, Kılıçkaya said:
“At USHAŞ, we support these efforts through domestic and international activities. For example, we will be holding a business forum with the United Kingdom on December 2–3 where the Turkish Minister and his British counterpart will come together with executives and scientists from universities and health institutions. The United Kingdom is an important market for health tourism, as we have already seen many tourists from the United Kingdom arriving for aesthetic, surgery, dentistry and ophthalmology treatments We will hold this important forum with the participation of 50–60 companies.”
