Strategic Planning for The Development of Medical Tourism in Ardabil City

Today, medical tourism is growing rapidly and many countries have documented plans for the development and exploitation of this branch of health tourism. As one of the border areas of the country, the city of Ardabil has a favorable climate and of course natural and infrastructure potentials, it is prone to progress in the field of medical tourism, but until now it has not been able to achieve a position commensurate with its properties. In this regard, the aim of this research is to plan the development of medical tourism in Ardabil city. The current research is descriptive-analytical in nature and practical in terms of purpose, and its statistical population consists of experts in the field of medical surgery in Ardabil city, using the snowball method, 10 experts familiar with the subject in Ardabil city, as a sample. Selected research statistics were selected and questioned. Also, strategic management models (SOAR and QFD) have been used to analyze the obtained data. The results of the SOAR matrix indicate that 7 strengths and 6 opportunities have been identified for medical tourism in Ardabil, and in this regard, 3 ideals and 5 results have been compiled. In addition, 5 strategies have been developed to achieve these results and goals. Finally, the prioritization of strategies using the quality house model showed that the strategy of "using competitive advantages (such as the low cost of medical services in Ardabil city) in line with the development of medical infrastructure and diversification of related services", is the most important strategy for the development of medical tourism in Ardabil. The result is that the three pillars, the medical community, officials and financial resources, which happened to be the basic needs of this research, are the most important factors in the development of medical tourism in Ardabil city.