A Call for Awareness Regarding Health Tourism

SAĞLIK TURİZMİ ADINA DUYARLILIK ÇAĞRISI 

We are saddened to follow the allegations of "tourist insurance abuse" that have recently appeared in the local press and social media platforms, involving some healthcare facilities and hotels in the Alanya and Antalya regions. As the Alanya Health Tourism Association, we are not only a regional healthcare organization but also a non-governmental organization with a 10-year history that has actively contributed to many national and international health tourism processes.

Our association, since its establishment in 2015, has been working to ensure that healthcare institutions providing solutions to tourists' sudden illnesses, especially in mass tourism destinations, operate transparently, on a general basis, with high quality, and at fair prices, in the name of a country engaged in mass tourism. Furthermore, it aims to ensure that tourists experiencing sudden illnesses receive prompt healthcare services in both the public and private sectors, fostering a sense of security in Türkiye and contributing to the sustainability of Turkey's image as a shining example in the healthcare sector.

We have faced similar problems in the past. In particular, the high-coverage policies of Western European insurance companies have caused serious difficulties in the healthcare processes of tourists coming to our country, not only in the private sector but also in public hospitals. In 2015, the Ministry of Health transferred the "tourist health" processes carried out in public hospitals in coastal regions to a private company of Spanish origin. During this process, healthcare services provided in our public hospitals were billed to foreign insurance companies at very high prices, and some of our public hospitals were blacklisted by foreign insurance companies. As an association, we actively monitored the process at that time to stop these wrongful practices and made significant contributions to their termination.

The occurrence of such systemic problems even in public hospitals clearly demonstrates how vulnerable our healthcare services are to the unbalanced and uncontrolled effects of international insurance systems. This situation threatens not only the present but also Türkiye's future share of the health tourism market. Because in the future, the target audience for health tourism will no longer be limited to hair transplants, dental treatments, or cosmetic procedures; it will include the elderly population, cases requiring radical surgery, and oncological patients. This makes it difficult to establish a healthy, verifiable, and equitable relationship with international insurance companies.

Today, a similar structure poses a serious threat. The practice of treating health facilities within hotels as if they were revenue-generating commercial enterprises—like bathhouses, markets, tattoo studios, or car rental points—and renting them out to private hospitals, clinics, or practices at exorbitant prices, is completely contrary to the nature of healthcare. The marketing of these spaces through "pre-sale" before the season, and the demand by hotel managements for free healthcare services for themselves and their senior executives in return for these sales, are practices that cross ethical boundaries and lead to systemic corruption.

The fact that these facilities charge exorbitant amounts for services received in case of a sudden health problem, based more on economic expectations than medical necessity, undermines tourist trust and creates a breeding ground for the perception in European public opinion that "if you go to Türkiye, don't get sick."

Health tourism and mass tourism are now intertwined. If a tourist's access to healthcare services and their sense of security in the process are compromised, not only health tourism but also the overall tourism potential of our country will suffer directly. Unfortunately, the "Regulation on International Health Tourism and Tourist Health" issued in 2017 and the new regulation published on April 26, 2025, contain no definitions, rules, or control mechanisms for the activities of "assistant companies," which are among the most important actors in this field. Yet, this system has been actively operating in Türkiye for nearly 30 years.

We believe that the Ministry of Health urgently needs to cooperate with the Ministry of Tourism to make serious regulations on this matter. Tourist health and the relationship with assistance companies should be clearly defined and regulated in regulations with transparent, auditable, and enforceable rules.

Today, if these reports are true, criminal proceedings should be initiated swiftly; if false, the public should be clearly informed about these allegations that cast a shadow on regional tourism. We must demonstrate to both the domestic and international public that Türkiye is a determined, responsible country that does not compromise on ethical values in health tourism.

We thank Yeni Alanya Newspaper, a local media representative that contributes to the sector with its transparent, ethical and up-to-date approach to sustainable health tourism and safe tourism issues, for its sensitivity and wish it success in its work.

I bring this to the public's attention.

Kind regards.

Ahmet Girgin

Alanya Health Tourism Association

Vice President