Analysis of communication and cultural barriers to the development of medical and health tourism using interpretive structural modeling (Case study: Meshkinshahr city)

The aim of this study is to identify the communication barriers to the development of medical and health tourism and also to design and test the conceptual model of these barriers according to the intercultural nature of medical and health tourism. Identifying the most important communication barriers to the development of medical tourism and health, designing a model of these barriers with structural interpretive modeling and finally, testing the hypotheses of this model in a sample of 150 people, are the three steps in this study. The results showed that the communication and cultural barriers to the development of medical and health tourism are: lack of knowledge, perceived linguistic differences, lack of trust, perceived cultural differences, prejudices and stereotypes. Also, provided that managers collect and categorize the factors affecting the concept of medical tourism and health, this issue can be a way for trustees and officials in the field of health in creating and increasing foreign exchange earnings for the country.