Investigation and Analysis of Factors Affecting the Demand for Foreign Medical Tourism in Ahvaz Metropolis

Currently, medical tourism is a thriving tourism market with annual revenue of $ 60 billion worldwide, so the number of countries seeking to provide medical facilities and services to international tourists is increasing. Many countries are already developing legal, and service plans to develop this industry. With the significance of these issues in mind, the present study aims to investigate and analyze the factors affecting the demand for international medical tourism in Ahvaz metropolis. The study employed a descriptive-analytical research design, applied-theoretical research method, a survey approach. The Pearson correlation coefficient results for investigating the effect of independent research variables on the dependent variable confirm the effect of independent variables of rules and regulations; business environment and infrastructure; human, cultural, and natural factors; economic factors; and communication factors with coefficients of 0.674, 0.228, 0.301, 0.884 and 0.402 on the dependent variable “international medical tourism demand” in the metropolis of Ahvaz, respectively. For investigating the difference between the status quo (objective) and the desired (subjective) status of international medical tourism demand indicators in Ahvaz, the paired t-test indicates a gap. Obtaining a value of 0.50 for the GoF in the SEM confirms the effect of the independent variables on the demand of international medical tourism in Ahvaz metropolis and the desirability of the research measurement model’s quality