The Evaluation of Effective Components on the Development of Medical Tourism in Tabriz city

Introduction 

The tourism industry is one of the most lucrative and at the same time healthy and clean industries for the economy of any country. This prosperity industry represents the political, economic, social, security, cultural and scientific stability of the world. In other words, the tourism industry, with its unique privileges, simultaneously provides several goals in the national space of a country. While other industries just provide part of the desired goals. Medical tourism as one of the dimensions of tourism contributes to the sustainable development and dynamism of countries. This type of tourism is in the center of attention of many countries due to its low cost and high income, and many developing countries are making big plans for the development of this industry. Iran is considered as an important destination for medical tourism in the world, especially in the Islamic world, with its specialized human resources and advanced medical facilities and due to its high capacities in attracting medical tourists. Due to the importance of medical tourism and the existing potential in Tabriz city and the fact that Tabriz is one of the most important cities in terms of medical tourism, so this study was intended to analyze the effective components on the development of medical tourism in Tabriz. 

Methodology:

The research type is applied and its method is descriptive-analytical. Data collection was through books, articles, dissertations and related researches and field data and questionnaire (based on Likert scale). Also, the statistical population of the study consists of medical tourists in Tabriz in 2019. The statistical population was 132,125 people. Cochran's formula was used to determine the sample size which according to it, the sample size is 384 people. In the present study, simple random sampling method has been exerted. Questionnaire data in SPSS software were analyzed through Spearman correlation coefficient and regression test.

Result and discussion :

According to the relationship between price and development of medical tourism with respect to the R-value, which is -0.986, and this value is less than the critical value of Spearman with a degree of freedom of 383, which is 0.001, so there is an inverse and negative relationship between prices and the development of medical tourism. However, regarding the relationship between the quality of medical services and the development of medical tourism at a significant level of one domain, the significance level of Spearman test was 0.000, and this level was less than the minimum significant level of 0.05, and also calculated according to the R-value which is 0.869, and this value is greater than Spearman's critical value with a degree of freedom of 383, which is 0.001, therefore, there is a significant relationship between the quality of medical services and the development of medical tourism. Regarding the relationship between culture and the development of medical tourism, according to the R-value, which is 0.720, and this value is greater than Spearman's critical value with a degree of freedom of 383, which is 0.000, therefore, there is a significant relationship between culture and development medical tourism in Tabriz. Concerning the relationship between medical facilities and equipment and the development of medical tourism, this level was less than the minimum level of 0.05, therefore, there is a significant relationship between medical facilities and equipment and the development of medical tourism in the city of Tabriz. Finally, the relationship between information technology and the development of medical tourism is calculated according to the R-value, which is 0.834, so there is a significant relationship between information technology and the development of medical tourism.

Conclusion:

 Tourism makes up the bulk of a country's foreign exchange earnings. The growing industry ranked third in international trade in 2000, according to the World Trade Organization. It is known as the world's largest industry after oil and automobile manufacturing. One of the types of tourism is medical tourism. According to the World Health Organization in 2004, about $ 50 billion is spent annually on the treatment of patients in the region in European and American countries. Attracting a percentage of this amount can have a significant impact on the medical tourism economy of Asian countries. As the research results show, the price of medical and tourism services as well as the quality of medical and tourism services, culture and facilities, medical tourism facilities and equipment, and information and communication technology are among the effective factors on the development of medical tourism in Tabriz metropolis. Therefore, in order to develop this industry, it is necessary to make the price of medical services and tourism transparent; increase the quality of medical services and tourism; increase and promote the culture of tourism; utilization of medical and tourism facilities and equipment with high technology and international standards; and utilization of information technology in the fields of medicine and tourism to benefit from the extraordinary advantages of this industry in order to create employment and currency for the country.