The head of the Health Tourism Office of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education talked about Iran’s serious competitors in the field of medical tourism.
Saeed Hashemzadeh in the webinar “Corona Crisis and Tourism Management of Iran” organized by the Tourism Scientific Center of Imam Sadegh (AS) University, in response to the question of what effective health tact have been taken into action for the health tourism department during the Corona, focused on tourism said:
“Under the influence of Corona, the borders were closed and the first challenge was to prevent tourists from entering”
After it was decided to open the borders to health tourists by making a series of arrangements, questions were raised about how capable medical centers are of progressing the health tourism industry in coronary conditions.
He added: “The foreign patient who enters our country has double anxiety, of course, this is not just about Iran, in the context of the corona epidemic, this risk goes back to all countries, especially if we are talking about health tourism”
Referring to the information gap in the field of medical tourism, he said: “Since the beginning of the epidemic, important measures have been taken in the country to control this virus, but have we informed our patients and customers about the measures and restrictions we have taken?”
Many foreign patients have canceled their trips in the past year, and many do not know what is being done in Iran. While the websites of medical centers in many countries, including India and Turkey, mention immunization protocols and measures that may not have been implemented. We encounter information gaps between medical centers and foreign patients and that is what troubling health tourism.
In the end, Hashemzadeh mentioned the emergence of new rivals in the region, “Countries such as Georgia and Azerbaijan may become medical tourism destinations in the next five to seven years. It is better to put the gap that COVID-19 has created into more use. It is the time!”
Over 30,000 health tourists received medical treatments in Shiraz