Investigating the Solutions and Policy Instruments of Medical Tourism Development in Iran

Medical tourism is a growing phenomenon in 21th century that has one of fastest growing markets in tourism. Despite Iran's medical tourism capabilities, statistics show a very small market share for the country. Due to good opportunities and increasing international competition in medical tourism on one hand, and not using our capabilities in this industry on the other, this mixed method research aims to identify medical tourism development solutions as well as appropriate measures and policy instruments to implement them in Iran. The study was conducted in two phases. In the 1st phase(qualitative) after interviewing 16 participants, appropriate solutions, measures and instruments were extracted using thematic analysis. On the 2nd phase, statistical tests were used to approve and prioritize solutions as well as to assess the policy instruments according to effectiveness and feasibility measures. According to the results, there are 20 solutions and 37 effective feasible policy measures for medical tourism development in Iran which should be pursued in three areas of "policy making and administrative structures", "medical tourism supply chain" and "medical tourism markets.