Measurement of Social Marketing in Health Tourism

Introduction The most important priority in social marketing is influencing the attitudes and behaviors of people in different societies in order to reform such attitudes and improve their misbehavior; approaches that can in the long run lead to an improvement in attitudes of people and bring about a positive voluntary conduct.
It is predicted by experts that in 2020 tourism industry will become world's most profitable industry. Researchers are of the opinion that the attitudes of tourists toward their destinations are some of the most important factors in the development of health tourism. This principle can be used to develop a favorable image in the minds of health tourists since the principles of social marketing can be used to eliminate tourist's poor attitudes and help create favorable attitudes in them. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to provide a social marketing model to change tourist's attitudes toward health tourism in the Iran.
Research Method In this study, a mixed exploratory method was used. At first, the qualitative data were collected and studied in order to analyze the phenomena and then the quantitative data were analyzed and collected in order to determine the type of relationships that existed between the variables. In order to design a health tourism model, the phenomenon were studied through using qualitative methods and through interviews. Constituent components were also identified in health tourism. And in order to test the model, the researchers tested the validity of the criteria identified in the exploratory stage of the research; moreover, in order to communicate with them, factor analysis and path analysis methods were investigated through the application of structural equation.

Discussion and results Social marketing model in health tourism corresponds with the conditions of Iran; and it is hoped that the inability to have an approach that is solely based on values are resolved through social marketing. It is also worth mentioning that rational logic in social marketing model is the one derived from the theory of social judgment. In accordance with the model derived from qualitative study, market-oriented leadership was introduced as an independent variable in achieving social marketing strategies through analyzing and understanding health tourism and its infrastructure.
Hence, the first and third assumptions were confirmed that in order to assess the impact of market-oriented leadership on the infrastructure of marketing, social marketing strategies should be studied in order to better understand health tourism market. Based on these findings, it can be proposed that through the analysis of the macro-environment of health tourism market and an improved skill in understanding the market, it would be possible to develop a culture of value for the components of infrastructure of marketing.
Conclusions Finally, considering the impact of social marketing on the components of beliefs, emotions and behavioral intentions, it was found that tourist's attitudes and behaviors could be altered through designing and integrating social marketing mix. These findings further demonstrated that social marketing could play a vital role in health tourism. Moreover, it showed that the senior management of an organization could have a valuable role in improving social marketing.