Emin Çakmak, chairman of the Turkish Healthcare Travel Council, offers deep insights into the healthcare travel industry and how it stretches beyond the commonly used term of “medical tourism”. Çakmak also elaborates on the current dynamics of the industry in Turkey, the features that have made the country a choice destination for foreign patients, and how the industry is positioned to become a significant vein in the healthcare system parallel to domestic care.   What makes the Turkish Healthcare Travel Council unique compared to similar organizations in Turkey? There are many small associations in the region for medical tourism. What distinguishes our association from the others is that the Turkish Healthcare Travel Council (THTC) is fully dedicated healthcare travel, a boarder view on the industry which consists of eight segments. We are a founding member, and only member in Turkey, of the Global Healthcare Travel Council. This council was founded in Monte Carlo, Monaco in 2013. I have led the global council for two years, once from 20013 to 2014 as founding chairman, and as elected president from 2014 to 2015. The reason we established the Global Healthcare Travel Council was to gather accurate statistics of the industry from each member country and create new regulations for international patients. In the five years since the formation of the Global Healthcare Travel Council, we have organized several educational workshops in different countries and created an international code of conduct to be followed by member countries. This code is meant to establish an international standard of patient rights and ethical paradigms. Turkey was one of the first countries to accept and implement this ethical program.   How would you characterize the specificities of the healthcare travel industry? According to our views of healthcare travel, we divide the industry into eight segments: medical tourism, dental tourism, spa and thermalism, wellness, sport health tourism, retirement tourism, culinary tourism, and accessible tourism. Although most stakeholders will use the term medical tourism, this refers primarily to surgery, whether it be small aesthetic surgery or essential organ transplants. Having eight distinct segments gives us a more detailed view of the industry as a whole. For example, dental tourism is a different segment because it is both surgical and aesthetic as well. Culinary tourism refers to detox and diet management services. The THTC was started in 2005 to cover all these segments and we have members who are service providers in all eight segments of healthcare travel. Our data points are different from those of the Minister of Health because the ministry only engages with medical and dental tourism, while the other sectors are categorized under the Ministry of Tourism rather than that of Health. However, the ministries of health and tourism recently signed an agreement to recognize spa thermalism as a segment within medical tourism. The duty of the THTC is to collect the data from the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Tourism and consolidate this information under one entity. We are holistically focused on healthcare travel, not just medical tourism. We believe that healthcare travel includes any action related to health and wellness. Eventually, even someone going on holiday for a week to rest their body or play sports can be considered as a healthcare tourist. The Global Wellness Council has projected USD one trillion of turnover sourced from tourists; they consider that all holiday trips can be identified as for the purpose of wellness. However, the THTC does not consider all these travels as wellness at the moment.   How has the healthcare travel industry developed in Turkey over the past several years? Over the last two years, despite the crisis that included the 2016 coup and terrorism threats, medical tourism in Turkey did no decrease – far from that. Most tourists come from the MENA region and Russian republic countries; as well as Europe, the UK, and Ireland. In their home countries, the price of medical procedures is double and they often must wait a several months before they can have an appointment for treatment. Across the eight segments, our estimate of revenues is close to USD 575 billion globally. Medical tourism alone accounts for approximately USD 100 billion – the rest is generated by the other segments. Last year in 2017, we had approximately 765,000 tourist overall coming to Turkey, producing USD 7.2 billion, in turn, over across all eight segments. In terms of the most significant areas, 32 percent of patients come to Turkey to receive oncology care. Aesthetic procedures only account for a small portion of medical tourism revenues as they are low-cost, quick procures. Whereas on the other hand, oncology care is ongoing and requires patients to stay in Turkey for several weeks or even months. Turkey has become a center of excellence for oncology due to the investments into the sector.   What makes Turkey such an attractive location for foreign patients looking to receive health services outside of their own countries? All medical procedures are performed under the ethical regulation of the Ministry of Health. In transplantation, without ethical approval, the patients cannot continue with their procedures. For example, the relationships between the recipient and donor are checked by independent ethical boards, which must approve all transplants. This is why patients prefer to receive care in Turkey – the close monitoring of ethical conditions.

The economic benefits of this industry are a secondary priority; quality care and service are Turkey's first concern.