Effective Factors on the Development of Health Tourism, Study Case: Rasht Hospitals

Today, treatment is one of the important goals of tourism. Tourism in health and healthcare is growing rapidly in the world. Despite the fact that Guilan province, as one of the most important and touristic provinces of the country, has an annual population of 500,000 foreign tourists and can be the center of health tourism in Iran. Unfortunately, this province has not been able to have a proper share of the revenues of this field and attract foreign patients in parallel with its treatment capacities.

The aim of this study was to identify the factors affecting the development of health tourism. In this regard, first, literature review was used and opinions of experts in this field, who were employees in five hospitals in Rasht, including Velayat, PourSina, Aria, Pars and Qaem hospitals, were selected using the Snowball sampling method. Twenty-five effective factors were identified and using Delphi method, 14 factors were selected as the final factor. Then by used of the Best and Worst Method (BWM), the importance of each factor was determined. Finally, using DEMATEL method, the effect of this factor on each other was determined.

After conducting two rounds of Delphi, 11 factors that had an average lower than the average of the total opinions of the experts and there was more disagreement about them were eliminated. Then, by implementing the best-worst method, the quality of medical services was determined as the most important factor, and the ease of booking an appointment in advance for admission and the status of the banking system were determined as the least important factors among the final factors. Also, based on the results of the DEMATEL method, the quality of medical services has the greatest effect and the ease of booking an appointment in advance for admission has the least effect on other factors. Finally, the quality of medical services is the most effective and appropriate advertising about health tourism in domestic and foreign chambers of commerce has the least effectiveness.

Health tourism in Iran despite the relative quality and cheap price, has not yet found its place in the market due to the lack of proper advertising is still taking the first steps. Considering the environmental conditions and the existence of tourism aspects of Rasht, carrying out measures such as improving the quality of medical services, appropriate marketing, and improving infrastructures will lead to the development and improvement of health tourism, and as a result, increasing satisfaction and attracting more customers.