Title: Measuring the competitiveness of Iran's health tourism

Authors: Hassan Mohammadian Mosammam; Mozaffar Sarrafi; Jamileh Tavakoli Nia

Addresses: Center for Regional/Spatial Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran ' Department of Geography and Urban Planning, and Center for Regional/Spatial Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: High competitiveness of the destination is one of the key factors of success and reaping the benefits of tourism in the international tourism market. Accordingly, this paper seeks to identify the determinants of health tourism competitiveness in Iran using customised indicators and Dwyer's integrated model. The selection of competitiveness indicators is based on a three-stage web-based Delphi survey. After selecting the 138 indicators and categorising them into six groups, the questionnaire was developed and 119 questionnaires were completed through a web survey. The results revealed that among six key determinants of health tourism competitiveness, only endowed resources have relatively favourable conditions and the overall images of Iran's health tourism are not competitive. Such results may be an important step to understand the strengths and weaknesses of health tourism in Iran and can be used as a guide for tourism planners and policy-makers to adopt appropriate policies.

Keywords: competitiveness; health tourism; integrated model; Iran.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2019.104875

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2019 Vol.9 No.3, pp.201 - 221

Accepted: 08 Dec 2018
Published online: 05 Feb 2020 *

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