Exploring the barriers of medical tourism development in Iran with an emphasis on policymaking requirements

Medical tourism as one of the health tourism branches , is a growing phenomenon in 21th century that has one of fastest growing markets in tourism. Despite Iran's medical tourism capabilities, statistics show a very small market share for the country. Due to good opportunities and increasing international competition in medical tourism on one hand, and not using our capabilities in this industry on the other, this qualitative study aims to explore medical tourism development barriers in Iran and provide practical guidance, using a thematic analysis approach. 16 semi-structured interviews and data coding was undertaken. Results revealed that the 3 main barriers and their dimensions are as follows: 1- issues in "policy making and administrative structures" including administrative system, overlap between tourism and health policy areas, poor cooperation between public and private sector, poor information and statistics, poor monitoring and evaluation. 2- barriers of medical tourism supply chain including poor service provision process, unlawful service provision, poor competitiveness, investment barriers. 3- barriers related to target markets including poor communication with foreign patients, poor marketing and advertisement, poor competitive position.