The flow of foreign patients heading to Turkey for treatment has tripled over the past four years.
Secretary General of Turkey's Health Tourism Association Enginer Birdal said they intend to increase the number of medical tourists to Turkey to two million by 2023.
"The number of health tourists has increased to 262,000, whereas it was 74,000 in 2008, 92,000 in 2009, 110,000 in 2010 and 155,000 in 2011" said Birdal, adding, "Health tourism is essential for countries in terms of being both a source of income as well as providing promotion."
Statistics from 2011 show that patients from Germany, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Iraq top the list of healthcare tourists visiting Turkey, while visitors from countries Romania, Libya and Britain followed.
SABAH and Agencies
