Health Tourism Receives The Highest Grant
Capital is the most important obstacle for entrepreneurs to realize their original ideas. Entrepreneurs who cannot find enough capital have to postpone their projects that will be talked about around the world. Companies turn to government-sponsored grants to create more jobs.
Although many entrepreneurs or companies have rights, they cannot benefit from government incentives because they do not have enough information.
According to the data of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), the number of tourists who preferred Turkey for treatment in the last 10 months of 2021 was 370 thousand 335, while the income obtained was 704 million 261 thousand dollars. These numbers are expected to increase in 2022.
According to the data of the Ministry of Health, the number of foreign patients visiting the country in the 10-month period was recorded as 718 thousand 164. It is considered that the statistics presented by TÜİK on health tourism revenues do not fully show. The number of patients, as determined by the surveys conducted at the border gates.
With the studies carried out under the leadership of the Ministry of Commerce, it is aimed to attract more health tourists and generate income. In this way, it is aimed to increase the share of Turkey in the health tourism pie.
WORLD HEALTH TOURISM MARKET $100 BILLION
While the expenditure per tourist in the sector is recorded as about 1900 dollars, in reality this figure is estimated to approach 10 thousand dollars. The most preferred branches of tourists who come to Turkey to receive health services are; hair transplantation, aesthetics, cardiac surgery, orthopedics, oncology and IVF treatment.
70 percent of those who prefer Turkey in these areas come from Europe and 30 percent from the Arab world. Turkey has gained great momentum in health tourism in the last 10 years. The sector saw the peak and reached an economic size of 3 billion dollars in 2019 and exports of 2 billion dollars were realized. Due to the pandemic, the sector closed 2020 with a decrease of 65 percent compared to 2019. Although it observed a decrease at the same rates in 2021, it gained momentum in the last quarter with the effect of normalization and there were more than 2 decreases in 2021. billion dollars entered the country. In 2022, the sector is targeted to grow and reach a size of 5 billion dollars. It is stated that with the normalization, 2022 and 2023 will be the growth years for Turkish Health Tourism.
Approximately 2,000 hair transplants are performed daily in Turkey. There is a serious staff shortage in the industry. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of National Education accelerated their efforts to train qualified and foreign language-speaking personnel in this field in order to meet the needs of at least 15,000 personnel.
According to the “Global Survey 2020 Reports” of the International Society of Aesthetic Surgery (ISAPS), Turkey has become one of the 5 countries where the most plastic surgery is performed in the world during the pandemic period. Despite the pandemic, the sector grew by 1.8 percent. Turkey was preferred the most in the field of hair transplantation and rhinoplasty.
25.8 percent of the patients in the sector in Turkey come from abroad, primarily from Germany, England and France. In this field, we receive mostly patients from Germany.
Health tourism has become an important income generating field. MAT Management and Consultancy Founder and Chairman of the Board Güler Karaköse evaluated the issue. Karaköse said, “Companies, investors, entrepreneurs are unaware of the grants and incentives they can receive from the Ministry of Commerce or KOSGEB for millions of lira. The government supports these sectors with unrequited incentives because supporting companies both contributes to the employment of the country and increases exports. Today, sectors that can achieve much better points by receiving incentives unfortunately lag behind because they are unaware of these supports. Knowledge is power, we follow the moves of KOSGEB and the Ministry of Commerce in all grants and incentives. In this way, we can provide our customers with the right support immediately.”
Guler Karakose
Güler Karaköse stated that brands that add value to Turkey can benefit from gratuitous incentives and grants worth millions of liras that they do not know they deserve.
40 MILLION TL NON-RETURNABLE GRANT EVERY YEAR TO HEALTH TOURISM
Güler Karaköse said that companies operating in informatics and sub-sectors in Turkey can use grants of up to 20 million TL within the scope of the Ministry of Commerce grant incentive program, “The risks in the state aid procurement process can be prevented. Many brands and medium-sized companies of our country can add significant added value. We can say that health tourism is the sector that receives the highest grant. Companies that provide guidance, consultancy and organization services to patients from abroad can receive 40 million TL non-refundable grants every year. Turkish companies that provide real estate services in residential, commercial and other immovable areas, especially foreigners, will be able to receive 10 million TL non-refundable incentives every year.
