Journal of North Khorasan

Background & Objectives: Health tourism is a form of tourism which is well known and common for many years between communities.The aims of current study was a comparative evaluation of the factors affecting promotion of health tourism in Mashhad from the perspective of foreign tourists and managers.

Material & Methods: This was an applied descriptive–survey. Area of the study was Mashhad metropolitan in the period between 2015-2016. The study population includes administrators and experts in related organizations who were 50 people of custodians, as well as 384 foreign tourists. The researcher-made questionnaire was provided in two categories for experts and tourists. In order to analyze the data, SPSS software, one-sample t-test and paired t-test were used. Also the mean ± standard deviation of six variables of Porter's diamond model in status quo and the impact were measured.

Results: Results showed a relatively good condition of the status quo of Mashhad in terms of entry into the health tourism market from the perspective of managers and experts (average of 3.36). Whereas, foreign tourists have evaluated only two variables including government (3.11) and culture (3.33) above the average and total average was lower than the mediocre (2.85).

Conclusion: Results showed that the cultural factors have had a desirable status and high impact from the perspective of foreign tourists and executives. Moreover, governmental support in providing visa services and accommodation for tourists was an important criterion in choosing a tourist destination. Generally, it was suggested that the custodians of health tourism in order to attract more tourists and promote this industry should offer the competitive prices.