Assessment of Medical Tourism Barriers In Tabriz City

In recent years, the tourism industry has become one of the most lucrative industries in the world and there is intense competition among many countries to attract tourists. Meanwhile, medical tourism, as one of the indicators of health tourism, is a growing phenomenon in the 21st century, which has one of the fastest developments in the tourism market. It also has high economic and social benefits for the destination country and city. Tabriz is a university city and one of the educational and research hubs of the country in medical sciences and welcomes medical tourists from countries in the region that face obstacles and challenges in this industry. The research method of the present study is descriptive-analytical and the method of data collection is documentary and field information. The statistical population of this study consists of the staff of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Handicrafts of East Azerbaijan Province, professors of the Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences of Tabriz University and physicians and specialists of public and private medical centers in Tabriz. In three weeks, 70 questionnaires were completed, of which 67 were suitable for use; The reliability and validity of the questionnaires were calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and analyzed by structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS-SEM). The evaluated variables, barriers to medical tourism were extracted from the summary of previous studies. The results showed that the barriers to medical tourism in Tabriz according to the path coefficients of the variables are: Language, communication and advertising barriers with a path coefficient of 0.271 in the first place has the greatest impact on the lack of development of medical tourism and the rest respectively Barriers to specialized manpower with a coefficient of 0.230, barriers to policy-making, legislation and monitoring and evaluation with a coefficient of 0.205, economic barriers with a coefficient of 0.189, barriers to facilities and infrastructure with a coefficient of 0.187 are in the next ranks. The results of this study show that except for the variable of manpower barriers, other variables have a role in the lack of development of medical tourism in Tabriz.