Journal of Tourism and Development

Journal of Tourism and Development

Evaluation of the quality of websites of medical tourism facilitators in India and Iran based on the WebQual model

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Ghazal Vojdanifard 1
Ali Eskandaripoor 2
Mohammad Zarezadeh 3
Omid Yoosefianzadeh 4
Abolfazl Taheri 5
1 Master of Science in Economic Systems Planning, Faculty of Economics, Vali Asr University, Rafsanjan, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics, Vali Asr University, Rafsanjan, Iran
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Health Services Management, Faculty of Health, Shahid Sadoughi Yazd University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, Yazd, Iran
4 Assistant Professor, Department of Health Information Management and Technology, Faculty of Health, Shahid Sadoughi Yazd University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
5 Assistant Professor, Health Information Technology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
10.22034/jtd.2024.458723.2933
Abstract
Medical tourism is recognized as one of the most profitable areas of tourism. In a comprehensive study on medical tourism in 2023, a key finding was the need for designing integrated and smart systems in this field. This research aimed to evaluate the quality of medical tourism websites in India and Iran using the WebQual method. Ten top websites from both countries were identified for the study. A survey was conducted using the WebQual questionnaire by a health technology and statistics expert along with five specialists in medical tourism.



Using SPSS software, the scores for each dimension were calculated by averaging the item scores. The findings showed that the average scores for customer relationship, website information, website security, and website performance for Iranian websites were all below 4, while Indian websites scored above 4 in all these areas. The results from the Friedman test indicated a significance level of 0.0001, which is below the critical level of 0.05. Additionally, Indian websites performed better in adhering to these elements than Iranian websites. The Mann-Whitney and independent t-tests revealed significant differences between the adherence levels of indicators among Indian and Iranian websites.



These results indicate that there are significant differences in adherence to these elements. Therefore, the Ministry of Health and the Tourism Organization can review all aspects of the quality of medical tourism facilitators' websites to design effective portals. They can collaborate with leading companies and experienced specialists to develop quality websites for medical tourism facilitators.
Keywords
Tourism
medical tourism
facilitators
quality assessment
WebQual
 
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