Abstract

Effective factors on the development of medical tourism industry in the West Azerbaijan Province, Iran: Pattern presentation

Author(s):Yousef Mahmoudifar, Seyed Jamaledin Tabibi, Amir Ashkan Nasiripour, and Leila Riahi

Nowadays, the market of medical tourism is considered as a revenue and competitive industry throughout the world, it is also regarded as a novel field of the sophisticated tourism. Therefore, most of the developing countries have focused on the medical tourism industry and they are planning for it. In 2016, the present research was conducted with the main objective of devising a pattern for medical tourism development in the West Azerbaijan Province. The statistical population consisted of all medical tourists who referred to the hospitals located in the province. With regard to the krejcie-morgan table and statistical population, the number of the sample was estimated to be equal to 260 persons. These persons were selected based on the multi-stage sampling method. The scholar made questionnaire and studies of the Ricafort and Kazemi were employed as the instrument of collecting data. The validity of questionnaire was confirmed by the experts, professors, supervising and advising professors after applying the required amendments. The reliability was realized using factor analysis method. The PLS method was utilized for analysis of the data. The findings indicate that %82.5 of the variations linked to the medical tourism development has been realized via changes in the two predictor variables (independent variable), including hospital selection and West Azerbaijan selection. Moreover, the two main factors, including hospital selection and West Azerbaijan selection with impact factors of 0.486 and 0.469, respectively have a direct and significant impact on the development of medical tourism of the province. West Azerbaijan Province has so many potentials, and due to this fact there exist very special conditions which can contribute to the development of the medical tourism industry in this region. It can be deduced that by carrying out measures, like creating a brand for province in the medical tourism field, coordination of the corresponding organizations related to the medical tourism and existence of responsible intersectional and policymaking institutions, we can contribute to the development of the medical tourism industry of West Azerbaijan.

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