Stepping up international expansion

Despite a decade of high double‑digit growth, and more than one million aesthetic treatments under its belt, Esteworld has been establishing offices around the world, with 35 to date including New York and Tokyo—and London, the latest addition last year. Other regional U.K. offices are slated for 2027.

Burak Tuncer describes this shift as Health Tourism 4.0. “We’ve opened those offices to show potential customers that we are right there—before the surgery and after. Any questions or issues can be discussed in their own country for follow up,” he said.

This year’s focus is the U.S., because while Esteworld has brand strength in Europe, it needs more visibility across the Atlantic. “This market is as big as Europe so we want to develop our presence there and we plan to open offices in Miami this year, and Los Angeles, in addition to the existing office in New York,” Tuncer told me. It is part of a positioning strategy to capture a disproportionate share of one of the fastest-growing segments of global healthcare.

Wellness is a new string to Esteworld’s bow

While Esteworld has excelled in cosmetic surgery and medical aesthetics the business noted that many of its customers were staying in their home markets or going to places like Switzerland for well-being and longevity breaks.

A few stays later in some of best longevity centers in Europe like Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland sparked the idea for a similar project in Istanbul. Called Well World, it is now being built on the Asia side of Istanbul on the Black Sea coast at Çayırbaşı. “Longevity is a feature of health that focuses on extending well-being before illness arrives,” explained Tuncer, a concept that is gaining traction globally.

The $180 million project, funded by the Tuncer family’s own money, is set to be the biggest longevity club in Europe set on 750 hectares and will open on October 29, 2027, said the chairman Mustafa Tuncer. This is an important date as it’s when Mustafa Kemal Atatürk formally proclaimed the establishment of the Republic of Türkiye as a modern, secular nation‑state in 1923.

A combination of luxury housing, operated on an annual one-week time-share basis (paid via a one-off lifetime membership fee depending whether it is an apartment or a villa), a hotel overlooking the Black Sea surrounded by forest, plus a large clinic on-site to offer a variety of healthcare services, is the model.

The focus is on nature, movement and quality of life and it is expected that a flying car service by AirCar will operate to and from Istanbul to bring customers to the resort when it opens. As Istanbul sits at the intersection of three major regions—Europe, the Middle East, and Asia—it may act as a natural choice for cross-border longevity demand.

The Tuncer family—whose Esteworld and Well World businesses form part of its holding, Tuncer Şirketler Grubu—are yet to make the Forbes Türkiye 100 Rich List. The CEO joked that it could take another five years, but the current strategic moves might speed things up. They signal a shift not just to more volume in terms of new global clients and services, but to a more powerful market positioning. In that time, Tuncer expects to have established surgery centers in Europe—perhaps in the U.K. or France, and one in the U.S. “Our new offices will feed these surgery centers,” said the CEO.

Within the holding, Well World will add new revenue to Esteworld’s €120 million ($141 million) annual sales, probably from 2028, and accelerate the group’s income if the project’s financial calculations work out. Mustafa Tuncer, who provided the figure, has a clear vision, and his son and CEO is acting on it. Their ambition now extends beyond patient volume to category leadership in global wellness.