Located in a narrow water inlet that separates Europe and Asia, Istanbul is a city rooted
in the most influential corners of history.
Few cities can boast of having a past like theirs.
An ancient city once known as Byzantium, then Constantinople, Istanbul was once the capital
of three great empires: the Roman empire of the East, the Byzantine Empire, and the Ottoman
Empire.
Places like Saint Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and the Grand Bazaar are legacies from that
era.
But, folks… wait just a second… because all that is in the… past.
Nowadays, Istanbul is a lively city that hosts more than 15 million inhabitants.
The largest city in all of Europe.
And an important economic enclave.
1 out of every 3 dollars of Turkey's GDP is generated here.
And even though it barely hosts a fifth of the country’s entire population, the Turkish
government gets about half of all its tax revenue from Istanbul.
So we’re talking about Turkey’s true economic engine.
A growing financial, logistical, commercial, and of course… touristic hub.
Istanbul attracts 13.4 million foreign visitors in 2018.
Daily Sabah)
However, folks, in recent years, Istanbul has begun to be well-known for a different
kind of tourism.
A very, very special tourism model.
As special as it is controversial.
Have you ever heard of medical tourism?
Listen up.
(A HIGH-FLYING TOUR)
Every year, hundreds of millions of people travel abroad to experience a new culture
and enjoy the sun, the beach, the mountains, or famous art and architecture.
However, folks, another type of unconventional but highly coveted tourism has recently gained
popularity: medical tourism.
That is, traveling to another country to visit its monuments, beaches and, in passing, fixing
anything they may need fixed.
“They usually come for three days.
We offer them shopping or skiing tours, they get well and have a short vacation,” said
Kazim Devranoglu, the medical head of Dunyagoz Group)
And folks, I can already tell you that for many governments, starting with Turkey’s,
this is a priority.
Of course...
At this point we need to answer two questions that many of you may be asking.
The first is... why go to another country in search of medical treatment?
Well... this has three very, very clear answers.
The first... is the price.
Of course, if you have to get a medical procedure that isn’t covered by your health insurance...
price matters.... a lot.
For example, some interventions and treatments are much cheaper in Istanbul than they are
in the United States.
And when I say cheaper I mean much cheaper.
50, 60, 70 and even more than 80% cheaper.
The second reason has to do with waiting lists.
Yes, you may be covered by your health insurance or social security, but... what about waiting
lists?
In public health systems such as those found in Spain or the United Kingdom, it’s very
common to have waiting lists... which are quite long.
[Which means you have to wait a long time for your turn.]
But of course, what happens if you can’t or don’t want to wait?
Then you need to find something on your own.
And in that scenario, the big international medical centers... don’t really have waiting
lists, or they’re much shorter.
The waiting time for a knee surgery in a Western Country is 18 moths, but is only two weeks
at most in Turkey.
Emre A. Kodan, Chairman of the Istanbul International Health Tourism Association.)
Check out how the number of British medical tourists has grown:
And the third reason is quality.
Yes, yes, you heard that right.
When a place specializes in a particular treatment and has many patients, it tends to be better.
Surely you all know about Houston’s Texas Medical Center, which serves about 10 million
patients every year, and is one of the leading medical centers on the planet.
In the end, these places have so many patients and so many resources that not only are they
very good at their job, they also become engines of medical research and innovation.
But we said that we had two questions.
We already answered the first one.
So what’s the second?
The other question is, why, exactly, is this such an important activity for a country?
Why would a government want to promote this type of activity?
Become a kind of International Health Care Center.
What could that bring to a country?
Well, folks...
Think about it.
Along with the traditional jobs that tourism creates, for example in the hotel industry
– waiters or cooks – medical tourism helps create a lot of highly qualified and well-paid
jobs:
Doctors, surgeons, nurses, laboratory personnel, medical device suppliers, etc., etc.
Due to the billing levels and the type of activity generated, medical tourism is like
the Rolex of tourism.
And on top of that, it doesn’t have the problem of seasonality, unlike holiday tourism,
which tends to concentrate within just a few months, usually during the summer.
And it’s precisely these reasons that have prompted the Turkish government to place great
hope in medical tourism.
A lot of hope...
And a lot of money, in the form of incentives: fewer taxes, financing, aid, etc., etc.
“I believe the city hospitals will become the focal points of health tourism.
We are setting up special units in the city hospitals to specifically serve foreign patients,”
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca)
And, you know what?
In a way, it makes a lot of sense.
Allow me to explain.
If Turkey is already a touristic power— it has hotels, infrastructure, all kinds of
services, a lot of cultural attractions, and places like Istanbul are only 2 or 3 hours
by plane from the main cities of Europe and the East—
Why not take advantage?
Well, folks... so it was said and done.
Turkey attracted nearly 1 million health tourists in 2018, industry official says: Daily Sabah)
And as I mentioned, this type of tourism leaves much more money in a country’s pockets...
than pure holiday tourism.
In 2018, medical tourists left more than 2 billion dollars in Turkey.
Thus, Turkey is already the third-largest market in the world in terms of medical and
health tourism.
It stands only behind the United States and South Korea.
Folks, medical tourism in Turkey has multiplied by more than 10 in the last decade.
Just in 2008, they welcomed 75,000 people.
In other words, the industry is skyrocketing.
Turkey’s medical tourism industry boosts visitor numbers.
When Turkey’s traditional tourism industry dried up, the country turned to its medical
sector to attract a new wave of visitors.
Business Destinations)
Of course, all this is just the beginning of what the government expects.
The goal is generate 5 times as much income from medical tourism five times by 2023, greatly
exceeding the 10 billion dollar barrier.
And, some within the government and the private sector are even more ambitious.
Their goal is 20 billion dollars.
A huge business that also gives the country a large foreign currency inflow.
Dental care, dentistry, cosmetic surgery, fertility treatment, cardiovascular interventions,
transplants, oncological treatments...
Turkey – and particularly Istanbul – wants to become a world leader in international
medical tourism.
And in one way or another, this will be very good for all of us.
Why?
Listen up.
(THE CLUSTER)
Folks, Istanbul is quickly becoming the world leader in several medical specialties: from
ophthalmology to knee care and hair transplants.
In some of these fields, it’s already number 1 on the entire planet.
And it’s that way because of price... and innovation.
Yes, you heard that right.
It has to do with a logical and well-known market process: Cluster creation.
Allow me to explain.
This happens when a site specializes in an activity and many competitors engage in the
same activity.
This causes everything in the area to somehow begin to revolve around that industry: the
number of suppliers that compete with each other multiplies; public administrations begin
to facilitate things for this increasingly influential industry; universities work with
these companies, etc., etc.
That, folks, creates a more dynamic ecosystem and multiplies its innovation capacity.
In other words, so to speak, Istanbul is becoming the Silicon Valley of cataracts and hair transplants.
For whomever may want them.
All this may sound like a joke...
But it isn’t.
The city of Bosphorus already has hundreds – you heard that right, hundreds – of
clinics that specialize in this type of activity.
In many cases, we’re talking about very new clinics with very advanced treatments.
And it’s estimated that by 2025, these types of interventions will move tens and tens of
billions worldwide.
Anyway, I think we can now understand news like this better:
The global medical tourism market size is expected to reach USD 179.6 billion by 2026,
according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., registering a 21.9% CAGR during the
forecast period.
Grand View Research)
So I really hope you enjoyed this video, please hit like if you did, and don’t forget to
subscribe for brand new videos.
Don’t forget to check out our friends at the Reconsider Media Podcast - they provided
the vocals in this episode that were not mine.
Also, this channel is possible because of Patreon, and our patrons on that platform.
Please consider joining them and supporting our mission of providing independent political
coverage.
And as always, I’ll see you in the next video.