An analysis of the role of medical tourism infrastructure in border areas on the destination image

One of the necessities for the development of the border provinces of the country is the existence of appropriate infrastructure and bases for the development of these areas. Medical tourism is one of the ways to develop these areas, which is the basis for the development of this type of tourism due to the fact that Iraq borders the province of Kurdistan. This research is descriptive-analytical and is applied-developmental in terms of purpose. The statistical population of this study consists of Iraqi medical tourists who had referred to Sanandaj for treatment and treatment for 4 months in the period from September 22, 2020 to January 19, 2021. The sampling method of this study is non-random. The sample size was selected based on data saturation, based on data saturation, due to the lack of exact number of statistical population in these 4 months and the inability to measure it by Cochran's formula. The main tool for collecting research data is a questionnaire and these questionnaires were distributed in three hospitals: Kowsar, Besat and Tohid. SPSS software and correlation and regression tests were used to test the research hypotheses. The results indicate that all components of destination infrastructure (knowledge, security, ease of access and fair pricing) have a significant relationship with the image of medical destination and the variance of destination infrastructure (knowledge, security, ease of access and fair price) is 82%. Explains the medical destination image from the variance.