Determinant Factors on Medical Tourism (Case Study: Iran)

Extended Abstract :The purpose of this study is to evaluate and prioritize the effectiveness of internal factors influencing medical tourists'' attraction to Iran. The initial data were collected to identify the internal factors encouraging medical tourists through using document analysis. As a result¡ 4 criteria and 15 sub-criteria were identified. It was followed by evaluating and prioritizing the criteria and sub-criteria using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and then was sent in a questionnaire survey to 30 academics and experts in tourism field. The results indicated that within four main criteria¡ medical resources with weigh 0/609 and within 15 sub criteria¡ medical equipment with weigh 0/347 were taken most scores.
Modern medical tourism produced by the citizens of developed countries. The high cost of health¡ long treatment process may lead to increased demand for such services in developing countries. There are various internal and external factors such as political¡ social¡ economic and cultural factors that play critical role in choosing a medical tourism destination by patients. The study of international experience shows that initially¡ the cost of medical services was the dominant factor in determining medical tourism destinations. But widespread and intense competition between medical tourism destination countries causes quality as a dominant factor became substitution to medical services costs.
Methods and Materials :This research is an applied study and used a descriptive survey methodology. The initial data were collected to identify the internal factor encouraging medical tourists using document analysis. As result¡ 4 criteria and 15 sub-criteria were identified. It was followed by evaluating and prioritizing the criteria and sub-criteria using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and then was sent in a questionnaire survey to 30 academics and experts in tourism field. The collected data were analyzed by Expert Choice software.
Discussion and Medical tourism is a new industry that many developing countries have a comparative advantage in this field. This industry formed in Asia after the Asian economic crisis in 1997 and some Countries such as Singapore¡ Thailand¡ Malaysia¡ India¡ Philippines¡ Taiwan and South Korea are pioneer in this industry. Iran have had great progresses in the medical field in recent years and predicted to become an area of medical tourism in the region following a long-term planning from the experiences of other countries in this field. The results of this study indicated that medical resources (0/609) and marketing promotion (0/191) are the most important factors among the evaluated factors. It was also indicated that the sub-criteria medical facilities and quality of medical services with the mean ranks of 0/347 and 0/421 are the first priorities and inefficient bureaucracy and transportation with 0/005 and 0/008 scores were are last priorities in encouraging medical tourists among the evaluated sub-criteria.
Medical tourism is a new form of tourism market which has increasingly grown in recent years as an economic activity based on trade services to explain the link between the medicine and tourism. One of the most important issues that should be concentrated by countries is medical tourism marketing to use the advantages of relative competition. Medical tourism thus is one of the most important areas that have been accounted by developing countries. This is encouraged many developing countries¡ especially in Asia¡ to look for marketing and medical tourists'' attraction in a competitiveness space. The results of this study indicated that the medical resource is one of the most important indicators in choosing medical tourism destination. Also¡ the medical services with appropriate subvention may make special comparative advantage in medical tourists'' attraction.
Comparative results of similar studies in other countries confirm the results of this study. For instance¡ Ricfort has investigated the factors influencing medical tourists in choosing Thailand hospitals as medical tourism destination from the perspective of medical tourists and identified 20 influential factors. It has been reported that¡ factors related to medical sources including the quality of medical services and certified doctors have greatest impact on the choosing of medical tourism destinations. The price of medical services has included as the second priority. Also¡ Yang studied the key success factors in medical tourism marketing from the perspective of travel agencies and medical institutions in Taiwan. The results showed that¡ branding factor is the first priority and quality of medical facilities and medical services are in the next points.
Taken together¡ while such studies are different in their purposes¡ the common result of all is an emphasis on medical resources. They also have included the low-cost services as a second important factor for tourist destination.