Evaluate the Development of Medical Tourism by Cognitive Mapping Technique

Aims: This study aimed to investigate and analyze the internal factors affecting the development of health tourism. Participants Methods: The statistical population was the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization experts, the managers of travel services offices, and doctors in the field of health tourism. In the beginning, by examining the background of research and library study, the effective factors on health tourism development were identified and extracted. The next stage included semi-structured interviews with some experts in this field in order to identify the main factors and specialize the map. In order to nurture the factors and the relationships between them the Delphi method was continued with 15 experts. Findings: Two scenarios were presented; The first scenario results show that if only attention was paid to marketing and advertising, in addition to security, specialized medical staff, and tourist attractions, other factors will also change for the better. However, the second scenario results indicate the low sensitivity of other factors to the number of medical centers. This means that the number of medical centers, regardless of their facilities and up-to-date equipment, cannot attract health tourists to an area. Conclusion: The importance of human resources and the capability of the medical staff in the model shows the necessity of this factor in the eyes of health tourists. Specialized human resources seriously influence the effective provision of health services. Human resources are the most important factor in the health system.