Formulating Strategies for the Development of Treatment Tourism in Shiraz (Iran) Using a Strategic Planning Approach (SWOT)

Shiraz is one of the key cities of Iran in terms of medical facilities with more than 34 specialty and sub- specialty hospitals like Namazi، Heart، Organ Transplant and Eye Hospital. These hospitals which are well-known in the region and around the world are doing treatment tourism in a limited scale. This paper aims to investigate the potentials of the city in terms of attracting medical tourists on the one hand and formulating a strategic plan for developing such forms of tourism on the other. The method which is used in this cross-sectional research is strategic planning (SWOT). Exploring the rate and weight of the factors was done by the help of the medical tourism experts and use of the [Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)] software. The results demonstrated that the attraction of medical tourism in shiraz in the internal factor evaluation table was 2. 53، while this number for the external factors in the external factor evaluation table reached to the 2. 81. The research findings imply that the benefits and opportunities which exists for development of this activity is much more than internal weakness and external threats and so by these definitions the strategic planning (SO) is in the priority for the development of this section.