Choosing Medical Tourism Strategy Based on SWOT and Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Making

Today’s health tourism is one of fast-growing sections of tourism in the world. With considerable potential and actual capacities, Iran can become one of the main health tourism destinations in Asia. However, this business in Iran has failed to grow in a systematic and integrated way. The present study is aimed at detecting and ranking strategies of health tourism industry based on SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) technique. The results can help Iran’s health tourism industry by uncovering the challenges in order to help Iran’s leadership gain health tourism in the region.
In this descriptive applied survey, fuzzy multiple criteria decision making (FMCDM) method was used. The study was carried out in 2016. Study population was comprised of 15 field experts A researcher-made questionnaire was used for data gathering. Content validity of the questionnaires and the criteria were ensured using feedbacks from the experts and screening. The factors were weighed and ranked using F.ANP following F.DEMATEL and F.D>ANP while the strategies were ranked using F.VIKOR.
The results showed that based on F.DEMATEL, among the factors, ‘opportunities’ and ‘weaknesses’ were the most affecting and the most affected factors, respectively. In addition, F.D.ANP showed that the “renowned and experienced physicians at international level” was the ‘top strength’ sub-factor. Based on F.VIKOR method, “codifying and reforming the comprehensive tourism policies” was the top strategy.
The results indicate that to be successful in the field of tourism management, it is imperative that the comprehensive policies be revised.