Istanbul received 2.9m tourists in the first four months of this year, up 21% on the same period in 2012, according to the country’s Culture and Tourism department.

The extra 500,000 visitors equate to more than 4,000 extra beds needed in the city each night and Turkey already has the fourth highest hotel occupancy rate in Europe.

Outside of Istanbul, ‘health’ tourism is also soaring in Turkey and as foreign nationals seek affordable treatments for a wide range of medical disorders.

The inflow of foreign patients heading to Turkey for treatment has increased 3-fold over the past four years and the number reached 250,000 in 2012 from 74,000 in 2008, earning Turkey a place among the top ten medical tourism destinations in the World.

Turkey is running a multi-pronged health tourism strategy to attract more foreign visitors, including medical, spa and healthcare for elderly and disabled people. Foreigners are also seeking medical care in dentistry, optometry, orthopedics, plastic surgery and many other branches and there are those who prefer alternative methods of treatment such as the 1,600 thermal springs in the country known for their healing and revitalizing effects.

The country is now planning to introduce tax-free healthcare zones specifically tailored for foreign patients and intends to increase of medical tourists to 500,000 by 2015 and 2m by 2023.