Designing an Electronic Marketing Model for Medical Tourism of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the Proposal ‎Systems Approach

Today, the medical tourism industry is considered as one of the most important industries in the world and one of the highest income industries. The growth of information and communication technologies has not affected the growth of the industry over the past few decades and has provided the growth of electronic tourism. Given this position, it is necessary to elaborate a recommendation system template for e-tourism marketing as an issue in the country and to strengthen the strategies and mechanisms for promoting and empowering the industry through the information technology approach. This study aimed to design a recommendation system model for e-tourism marketing in Iran. The research is developmental in scope and is a component of mixed research. The statistical population was in the qualitative part of hospital managers and medical tourism experts who were selected by snowball method. They had an in-depth semi-structured interview. The qualitative results showed that the model of medical tourism has five dimensions including factors related to medical services, factors related to individual characteristics, factors related to internet information, factors related to tourism peripheral attractions, and factors related to travel facilities. In the quantitative section, a questionnaire based on the qualitative model was prepared and distributed among patients who referred to hospitals of Shiraz and Tehran for treatment and use of health services. Content validity and diagnostic validity were used for validity and Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability were used for reliability, respectively. The results of the quantitative section confirmed the model designed in the qualitative section. According to the findings of the study, it is suggested that the model resulting from this research be implemented and proposed by the proposed system, which according to the characteristics of the research, using the hybrid methodology is the most appropriate method for implementing the research model.