Iran's Competitive Advantage in Medical Tourism Marketing: A Case Study on Open Heart and Cataract Removal Surgeries

Medical tourism is travelling overseas to obtain medical care. Obtaining competitive advantage in this industry is crucial in many destinations particularly Asian countries. This study investigated the factors contributing to the competitive advantage of Iranian medical tourism marketing.
This was a descriptive case study research. To gather the data, a questionnaire consisted of 15 Likert-scaled questions with an 80 percent reliability on Cronbach's alpha test was randomly distributed among 67 Iranian heart surgeons, ophthalmologists and medical tourists using screening sampling. The collected data was analyzed using t and chi-square tests utilized with SPSS software.
There was a statistically significant dependency between competitive advantage and factors like physician’s skills, treatment and travel costs, waiting list and hospital technology and services. Physician’s skills included success in surgery, right and timely diagnostics and prescription. Cost included items such as doctor’s visit cost, medicine, visa, accommodation, hospital and surgery. Waiting list consisted of required time for doctor’s visit and visa processing. Regarding hospital technology and services, items such as operating room equipment, service quality and accommodation facilities were considered.
The results show that Iran has a strong competitive advantage in physician’s skills, low costs of treatment, travel and short waiting lists, respectively. Nevertheless, Iran is not highly advantageous in utilizing latest hospital technology and providing high-quality services to medical tourists.