Health tourism sector of Turkey is on a fast rise within international arena. Our country, which hosts foreign patients in a wide range of areas from aesthetic applications to obesity surgery, from cancer treatments to organ transplants, stands out with its quality service and competitive prices. Thanks to recent years’ increased demand, cities such as Antalya, Izmir, Samsun, Konya, notably, Istanbul also host health tourists. Sector representatives indicating that their goals and expectations have increased in 2025 emphasize that the “health free zones” model should be implemented as soon as possible in the face of increasing costs and rapidly increasing competition. Attention is drawn to the fact that by offering advantages such as tax exemptions and R&D incentives in such zones, Turkey’s competitive power in the international arena will increase.
Cihan Kılıç Aydın, the founder of Health Life, which has operations in the field of health tourism, made important remarks on the future of health tourism in Turkey. Mrs. Aydın underlined that the concept of “health free zones” must be put on the agenda, again, given the constant rise of costs and increased competition in health tourism sector.
“For Sustainability and Reduction of Costs, Free Zones are imperative”
Mrs. Aydın, underlining that institutions or individuals are trying to survive with their own efforts in the health tourism, said that costs were on the rise all the time. Having pointed out that such situation is having an adverse impact upon sustainability across the sector, “Benefiting from tax exemptions and various incentives is vital for agencies and doctors operating in health tourism. Due to the high costs, many institutions are trying various methods to reduce costs, but these should be managed together with the ‘health free zones’ model, rather than being left to individual efforts.” said she.
“Health Free Zones are not so new as a concept”
Cihan Kılıç Aydın reminded that health free zones were actually put into practice in the past, so it is not a new idea. In the event that such zones are started, she argued that agencies and physicians registered with such zones may take advantage of opportunities such as tax exemption, thereby, reducing costs Additionally, having said that R&D processes will also become more effective in such zones, she said “R&D is an indispensable element of free health zones. If such zones are not established, I see a great danger for Turkey, we might start seeing competition problems in health sector just like we saw them in textile sector.”
“It would Prevent Congestion in Istanbul and Strengthen New Centers”
Mrs. Aydın, stating that the fact that health tourism is largely concentrated in Istanbul today has caused congestion in the sector, said, “If free health zones are established in key points such as Gaziantep, Ankara, Samsun and Edirne, we will both disperse the excessive density in Istanbul and evaluate the potential of other regions.”
2025 Goal for taking one step forward in competition
Cihan Kılıç Aydın stressed that one of her goals for 2025 is establishing of health free zones in Turkey. She told that they wanted to have talks with relevant institutions and the government in this regard. Mrs. Aydın, drawing attention to the fact that countries such as India, Egypt, Greece and Spain made a great deal of investments in health tourism, underlined importance of strategic steps in order for Turkey not to lag behind in this field, said “Our competitors are advancing super-fast. The only way for us to compete against them is comprehensive and well-planned structures such as health free zones.”
