The challenges of kish health tourism: A case study

Abstract

Background: Health tourism industry is a new growing market that developing countries have a large effect on it and noticing this subject has been emphasized by the vision of twenty years strategic plan in Iran. On the other hand, increase of the neighbor countries' attention on this profitable market marker to a basic removal need of present challenges in Kish Free Zone. Objectives: Aim of this paper is to probe about the challenges of Kish health tourism identified in this case study at 2012 by qualitative method. Methods: Effective variables on health tourism were extracted from relative literature and then, variables in 34 groups were combined as a questionnaire with considering the proximity of concept and content. 14 persons were chosen as expert among the present and previous managers of tourism, healthcare system and health tourism areas by Modulation from simple and snowball sampling. Experts in addition to recognized challenges, expressed how significant is each one of health tourism developing factors and gave their expletive ideas about each challenges by Semi-structured interviews which were analyzed by Content Analysis Method. Results: The 13 main challenges of Kish health tourism extracted from interviews were related to policy making and planning, substructure and administrative problems, and macro affaires of country. Conclusions: Kish Free Zone Organization as governance representative in Kish should eliminate the existing challenges of health tourism industry in order to develop Kish health tourism.

A Progressive Multilevel Model for Selecting Medical Tourism Destinations: A Qualitative Study

“…There are political and social obstacles in Iran that weaken the success of the medical tourism industry. Experts believe that these obstacles exist because of the lack of suitable government support, the political climate, 15 and the lack of social security and banking services. Iran's medical tourism industry needs more support from the government in terms of planning and marketing, providing legal permission to facilitators to bring medical tourists to the country, and facilitating Iran's medical tourism industry through a more flexible visa process.…”

“…The economic and political conditions in Iran arisen after sanctions were imposed made other destinations 15 such as India, Turkey, and Jordan more favorable for the region's medical tourists. Providing banking services to foreign travelers is an important problem in Iran.…”

“…14 This could lead to the expansion of Iran's medical tourism industry which was negatively affected by economic instability, rapid alterations in currency exchange rates, and high inflation rates in previous years. 6,15 However, low medical and accommodation costs 16 compared with those of regional countries give Iran a competitive advantage in attracting medical tourists. Political condition: One major constraint for the medical tourism industry is the destination's political condition.…”

“…4 Government support: Today, governments play a significant role in introducing their medical tourism industry. The governments of some countries, such as South Africa, India, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore, market themselves as "global health destinations" through different promotional activities 18 and support the medical tourism industry by providing various options like "long repayment constructive loans" 15 or tax incentives to healthcare centers as motivation to attract more medical tourists. The rapid preparation of visas for medical tourists could also be a form of government support.…”

An Entropy (Shannon) Based Approach for Determining Importance Weights of Influencing Factors in Selecting Medical Tourism Destinations

“…Economic instability of a destination country led to loss of medical tourists as Iran lost its market share to other regional competitors due to economic instability; ongoing changes in medical cost, frequently fluctuating currency exchange rates and high inflation rates of previous years. 54 Patients considered international accreditation as the fifth priority. This factor brings quality assurance to clients.…”