Feasibility of health tourism capacities in Maragheh city with emphasis on sustainable urban development

With the development of urbanization and increasing mental pressures, citizens have also experienced increasing physical diseases. In this connection, health tourism assumes greater importance for people to use health and hygienic facilities. One of the areas in which cities compete with each other is their capability of attracting domestic and foreign treatment tourists. The level of reference and stay of health tourists is considerably highest than other tourists, and this indicates the significance of health tourism. The health tourism sector is one of the principal components of urban economic strength that guarantees residents’ quality of life. The aim of the present study was to measure the feasibility of health tourism capacities in the city of Maragheh using sustainable urban development. The study was an applied study and fell under the quantitative and qualitative research. The data were obtained by using documentary and observational studies via a researcher-made questionnaire. Health tourism evaluation criteria included 27 variables of social-cultural, economic, and environmental (ecological) components. The statistical population of the study consisted of 384 people who were present at health tourism places. To analyze the data, the structural equation modeling and SPSS, AMOS, and MPLUS software were used. Findings revealed that the component of tourism economics with the factor loading of 0.95 held the highest effects on the sustainable health tourism, and the component of local culture (factor loading of 0.63), terminal equipment (factor loading of 0.62) held the lowest effects. As well, the component5 of sustainable tourism with the direct and indirect effects of 0.815 and 0.131 held the highest effects, while the component of the environment with the direct and indirect effects of 0.634 and 0.164 held the lowest effects on the development of sustainable tourism in the city of Maragheh. The economic component with the direct and indirect effects and the component of social-cultural with the direct and indirect effects of 0.702 and0.105 also contributed to the development of sustainable health tourism in the city.