Designing A Medical Tourism Marketing Model To Spread Positive Messages In Iraqi Hospitals (Karbala City Case Study)

Abstract

Background and purpose: The medical tourism market has emerged as one of the most profitable and competitive industries in the world and is one of the new fields of advanced tourism. Today, the medical tourism industry is considered a special type of tourism and is considered one of the most important industries in the world and one of the most profitable industries. Although many factors can influence the choice of destination in medical tourism, some factors are essential for medical tourism. In this situation, it is necessary to explain and improve the strategies and mechanisms of promoting and empowering this industry by marketing the medical tourism destination as an important issue in the country. The present study addresses the literature related to the image marketing of a medical tourism destination with more than one study and provides new ideas for disseminating positive messages that in turn increase the marketing of a sustainable medical tourism destination and successfully communicate with others. This research aimed to identify factors related to medical tourism marketing in Iraq, especially in the hospitals of Karbala city, by providing a model for medical tourism marketing with the help of recommendation systems.

Research method: This research is considered mixed (qualitative-quantitative) research in terms of practical and developmental goals. The statistical population of this research in the qualitative part includes interviews with 15 experts specializing in medical tourism marketing, including university professors, managers, and owners of hospitals in Karbala, as well as a group of experts overseeing hospital departments. The semi-structured interview method is used to design the model and realize its various components, in this way, general questions are first designed for the interview, and then during the interview, the interviewee is asked according to the type of answer.

Findings: The results of the research are expressed in two parts, qualitative and quantitative. In the qualitative part, the results[1] showed that the design of the medical tourism marketing model includes six dimensions including causal conditions (15 subcategories). The main phenomenon: (5 subcategories); contextual conditions (5 subcategories); Intervening conditions (5 subcategories); strategies and strategies: (7 subcategories); and Consequences: (7 sub-categories). After performing the TOPSIS technique algorithm in the quantitative part of the research, three categories in terms of importance in medical tourism marketing took advanced positions, which are (modern medical equipment), (diversity in treatments and examinations), and (fame). Modern medical equipment plays an important role in the development and provision of health services in medical tourism. Because it plays a role in improving the quality of medical services provided to patients in tourist medical centers. The factor of diversity in treatments and tests is also important in medical tourism marketing, because meeting the needs and preferences of potential patients is extremely important, and a medical destination can attract a diverse group of patients by offering a wide range of treatments and tests, needs to fix them Tests Good reputation also plays an important role in the development and provision of health services in medical tourism, because it increases trust and credibility and indicates the quality and excellence of medical services. Therefore, it will help a lot to promote medical tourism and attract more tourists seeking medical treatment abroad.

Conclusion: Based on interviews with 15 medical tourism marketing specialists in Iraqi universities and hospitals, 44 subcategories were identified and extracted into 6 main categories. Among the 44 components, modern medical equipment in terms of importance in TOPSIS algorithm analysis with a distance from the positive ideal (d+) (0.003), with a distance from the negative ideal (d-) (0.010), and with the final score (cl) (0.7429). Variation in treatments and examinations ranked second with the distance from the positive ideal (d+) (0.003), with the distance from the negative ideal (d-) (0.009), and with the final result (cl) (0.7362). Shahrat ranked third in terms of importance with a distance from the positive ideal (d+) (0.004) and with a distance from the negative ideal (d-) (0.010) and the final result (cl) (0.7334).