In search a medical tourism marketing pattern in Iran: The case of cultural sensitivities

ABSTRACT

Health tourism has a significant financial benefit in the current industrial world. In addition, attention is being paid to the medical and cultural sensitivities in the development of the medical tourism industry, which increases the willingness of foreign patients to receive health care and treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role and importance of the factor of paying attention to the medical and cultural sensitivities of international patients in the proposed pattern of medical tourism marketing. In the stage of exploratory factor analysis, the proposed pattern including 9 factors with 60 items after confirmatory factor analysis confirmed and the ‘attention to the cultural and medical sensitivities’ factor with 6 variables ranked 8 among other factors. Regarding the issue of medical and cultural sensitivities of foreign patients, it can be expected that patients will be more intimate and sympathetic during admission to medical centres and receive health care services, which will increase their sense of security and trust towards health workers. Healthcare activists and government officials are expected to give special attention to the cultural and medical sensitivities in developing short-term and long-term plans for the development of the health tourism industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural sensitivity
• health tourism
• medical tourism marketing
• marketing
• pattern
• Iran

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fatemeh Najafipour Moghadam

Fatemeh Najafipour Moghadam, Ph.D. Student in Health Service Management, South Tehran

Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. Her work and research interests include cultural sensitivity in medical tourism.

Irvan Masoudi Asl

Irvan Masoudiasl, Ph.D. in Health service management, Department of healthcare Services Management, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Somayeh Hessam

Somayeh Hessam, Assistant Professor, Department of health service administration, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. Her work and research interests include the effectiveness of cultural sensitivity in medical tourism.

Mahmoud Mahmoudi Farahani

Mahmoud Mahmoudi Farahani, Professor, Department of Biostatistics, Research Center, Tehran University of Technology, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. His research interests include the impact of biostatistical research on healthcare management practices in medical tourism.