Health tourism or medical tourism means traveling to receive health and wellness services. The idea of the first medical trips came to the minds of patients when the citizens of one country made a smart decision and traveled to another country due to reasons such as the lack of necessary medical facilities or the high cost of a particular surgery.
If you are not familiar with this field, in this article we have talked about medical tourism, its history, the sub-branches of this field, the motivations of patients’ trips and most importantly, the large market of medical tourism in Iran!
By reading this article from Pars Med Travel get more information in this field.
A perspective of the health tourism industry
The tourism industry, which is ranked third after the oil and automobile industries, has positive effects on the economy of countries through foreign exchange. With the passage of time and the development of this industry, various branches of tourism such as sports, religious and health tourism have emerged. What makes a difference between these branches is people’s motivation for tourism and why they travel.
On average, the income from medical tourism for countries is more than 3 times that of normal tourism. The dramatic growth and increasing popularity of medical tourism has attracted the attention of policy makers, media and investors. This industry is low-cost but high-income and has a much brighter future than the governments imagine.
Definition of health tourism in the past and now
Health tourism is not tourism and health, tourism is for health. Health tourism means that a person travels to another country with the aim of improving his health, performing medical or cosmetic surgery or receiving other health and wellness services!
It is clear that providing medical care in another country is directly related to tourism activities. Because the patient has entered a new cultural environment and wants to visit the city and tourist attractions and have fun and buy souvenirs.
The World Tourism Organization defines health tourism as follows:
The use of services that lead to the improvement or increase of the person’s health and morale (using mineral waters, climate or medical interventions) and lasts in a place outside the person’s residence – which is more than 24 hours away.
Let’s talk a little about the motivation of patients to travel to other countries for treatment
Looking at the history of the health tourism industry,
we see that this industry in the past referred to the travel of patients from less developed countries to developed countries to receive treatments that were not available in the country of origin.
But today we are witnessing significant quantitative and qualitative changes in this type of travel.
Now people travel from wealthier countries to less developed countries to access medical and treatment services.
This paradigm shift is mostly due to low treatment costs, availability of low-cost flights,
short waiting period for receiving medical services, increased marketing and thus access to online information.
Therefore, we now see that many health tourists from advanced western countries such as the United States,
Canada and Western Europe are looking for medical treatment in Asia and Latin America.
In general, short and fast treatment time, quality of treatment,
advanced treatment technology, experienced doctors, reasonable price,
easy and worry-free commuting, and sometimes the country’s tourist attractions are the main motivations for medical trips of various patients.
Cosmetic Surgery; The strength of Iran’s medical tourism
Considering the low cost and high quality of providing cosmetic surgery services in Iran,
this country can be a serious competitor of developed countries in this field of medical tourism.
Iran is known as one of the pioneer countries in the Middle East region in the field of cosmetic surgery.
The high quality of cosmetic surgery services in Iran
and the low costs of providing these services compared to developed countries can be the basis for the development of health tourism in Iran.
Currently, health tourists from many countries come to Iran for plastic surgery,
but considering Iran’s high power in this field of treatment,
it is expected that more tourists will choose Iran as a destination for cosmetic and plastic surgery.
The cheap cost of plastic surgeries in Iran compared to other countries in the world is such that it has the ability to attract foreign applicants.
The level of plastic surgery in Iran is very high and Iran can easily compete with Western countries
and the world in general.
The quality of plastic surgery in Iran is the same as in developed countries
According to the latest statistics provided by the International Society of Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), every year we see that 5% is added to the demand for all kinds of plastic surgeries around the world. The most requested plastic surgery services by women include breast surgery, eyelid surgery and liposuction. Also, the most requested plastic surgery in men includes eyelid surgery, nose surgery, liposuction and hair transplant.
Medical knowledge and experience in Iran is very high.
The level of plastic surgery in Iran is higher than some European countries,
and in this field it is equal to America and developed European countries.
The best and most difficult plastic surgeries with the best quality are performed in Iran,
and the high quality of plastic surgery services in Iran is evident.
Therefore, Iran has no shortage of medical knowledge and experience in various types of plastic surgery and other medical treatments.
Pars Med Travel team hopes that this article was useful for you.(AR11)
