Journal of Tourism and Development

Journal of Tourism and Development

Medical tourism development determinants & strategies by taking an Approach towards Services Integration (Case study of three health areas)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Sayedeh Somayeh Hosseini 1
Masoud Taghvaei 2
1 Postdoctoral researcher, working under the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) in collaboration with the University of Isfahan; Isfahan, Iran
2 Professor of urban planning, Faculty of Geography Sciences and Planning, Isfahan University, Isfahan, Iran
10.22034/jtd.2020.250391.2138
Abstract
Considering the important position of medical tourism industry in the world economy and also Iran's capabilities in this industry, approach towards Services Integration as an effective policy to increase the attractiveness of competing destinations, in addition to providing better and higher quality services, it can also help the well-being of tourists and service providers. The present study aims to develop and prioritize medical tourism development strategies in the region of tree health (ILam, Kermanshah and Kurdistan) with the approach of integrating services and to expand health villages. The data were obtained first through analytical-documentary methods of content analysis and then interviews and questionnaires with a number of key experts. Data analysis was performed in the first stage through the use of software - MAXQDA-18. In the second stage, the data obtained from the previous step were evaluated to assess the current situation of the western provinces using the SOWAT technique. Then, by combining two techniques SWOT and fuzzy DEMATEL, in line with the research goal, different strategies were identified and prioritized using AHP technique. The statistical population of the evaluation and prioritization phase included 18 experts and medical tourism experts in the region. Findings obtained from the combination of multi-criteria decision making techniques with the SWOT model, showed that in terms of prioritizing strategies, review strategy (WO) in the first priority and defensive strategy (WT) in the second priority diversity strategy (ST) and integration (SO) became the next priorities.
Keywords
Medical tourism
content analysis
SWOT technique
Multi-criteria decision -making
Integrated Approach
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