Hurriyet Daily News | Turkey shines in plastic surgery tourism
Posted in News
Hurriyet Daily News | Turkey
shines in plastic surgery tourism
Thanks to policies implemented
over the last 10 years, Turkey’s reputation in plastic surgery standards is
increasingly improving.
Thanks to policies implemented
over the last 10 years, Turkey’s reputation in plastic surgery standards is
increasingly improving as the country looks to become the shining star within
the sector, according to plastic surgeons.
Turkey is now vying to become
one of the top five countries in plastic surgery tourism, according to Plastic
and Reconstructive Surgeon Orhan Murat Özdemir, who said nearly 350,000 people
visit Turkey annually to receive treatment.
“Nose remodeling surgery in
Europe totals 15,000 euros, while the price drops to 2,500 or 3,000 euros in
Turkey,” he said.
“The United States has the
largest share, taking $5.5 billion from health tourism from all over the world.
It is followed by Europe which takes 3.5 billion euros,” he added. “The volume
of the health sector, which has recently begun to develop in Turkey, totals $20
million. However, Turkey only ranks fourth in Europe in terms of the number of
facilities and the standards of quality.”
Some mistakes, such as all-inclusive holidays
at low costs that have been made in the holiday tourism sector, are not found
in the health tourism sector, according to Özdemir, who said that “health
tourism shows an increasing trend toward high-quality accommodation and staff
standards, globally recognized Food and Drug Association-certified devices and
Turkish doctors’ successes.”
“Turkey has become the shining
star in health tourism after the United States and Brazil, with its successes
becoming more apparent within the last 10 years,” Özdemir said, adding that
“foreign patients and Turkish people living in foreign countries mostly prefer
Turkey, especially for plastic surgery, eye and weight-loss procedures.”
“Foreign patients come from
many countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Kuwait, Libya, Egypt, Syria and Turkmenistan, undergo their
procedures and recuperations in Turkey, and then return to their home
countries.”
The quality of treatment and
surgery costs, especially in the specialist areas such as eye, dental and
plastic surgery that are not covered by insurance companies, give Turkey a
calculable advantage in the sector over other European countries, Özdemir said,
adding that dental aesthetics in particular bring an advantage in excess of 50
percent compared to Europe and the United States.
[HH] Longer accommodation
Foreign patients mainly
undergo procedures such as nose remodeling and breast augmentation, Özdemir
said, adding that some patient groups visit Turkey for plastic surgery and then
stay for eight to 10 days for their holidays.
The plastic surgery tourism sector
thus injects both foreign currency and prestige into the country, as there is
an increasing interest in the sector in Turkey, he said.
Nonetheless, fluctuations in
Turkish foreign policy has affected Turkey’s tourism sector in general, and
plastic surgery tourism is no different, Özdemir said, adding that following
the diplomatic tension between Israel and Turkey, patients coming from Israel
to receive plastic surgery have declined.
However, the removal of visa
requirements between Syria and Turkey has led to increased demand in the
region, Özdemir said, adding that Turkey will host a larger share of health
tourists coming from the Middle East in the next few years as patients from the
region are likely to shift their present preference for Europe to Turkey.
