Assessment of the Barriers to the Development of Health Tourism in Yazd Province, Iran

Today, health tourism is an important and growing phenomenon in the world. Iran has been one of the most active centers of health tourism in the region. Due to the important role of the health tourism industry in the global economy and the capabilities of Yazd Province, Iran, in this industry, the purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate barriers to the development of health tourism in this province.
This empirical survey was conducted in 2014. The statistical population of this research consisted of 10 experts who were familiar with the health tourism industry in Yazd Province. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by experts in the field of health tourism and through a review of literature similar researches. First, the barriers to development of health tourism were identified through literature review. Then, using the Shannon entropy, the importance of each barrier was identified and they were ranked using multi-objective optimization and Fuzzy VIKOR methods. Data analysis was performed using Excel software.
The barriers of high costs (0/0561) and limited advertisement (0/0462) were of the highest and lowest importance, respectively. Demanding regulations, health requirements of local community, and lack of human resources (nurses and doctors) were the most important obstacles to the development of health tourism in Yazd Province, respectively.
In the present study, the barriers to health tourism in Yazd Province were identified and strategies to eliminate these barriers and attract more health tourists were presented.