Health Day, Health Tourism
World Health Day is celebrated every year on April 7th. The importance of health is also highlighted in the tourism industry by health tourism, apart from health-specific sectors/industries. The effective role of health tourism on countries’ economic development because of low rates of costs and high revenues is of particular importance. Iran, despite a relatively short history in this area, has been able to improve health tourism in recent years. This is mainly because of the country’s climate variability, four-season feature, specific geographical regions, security, competent physicians, and hospitals of high standards. For example, a high number of hot springs has made Iran an attractive destination in terms of hydrotherapy. Salt domes, salt lakes, sludge treatment facilities, and a high variety of medicinal plants are among the characteristics that if utilized based on efficient planning, can contribute to the sustainable development of health tourism in the country.
What should also be highlighted in health tourism is the development of preventive health services. This is highly dependent on the culture of health care that acts as a preventive initiative against psychological and physical diseases. In this regard, health tours to natural and man-made treatment centers (healing hotels, organic restaurants, green accommodations, and spiritual/religious places, gardens) are a way to cultivate the culture of health care. Educational programs in such tours have the potential to improve participants’ rates of happiness and healthy lives. Furthermore, branding and marketing should be taken into account in order to expedite the procedure of achieving health tourism goals and objectives. Branding creates a credit for health centers that finally affects destination choice on the part of potential tourists. On the other hand, health canters’ managers should apply market segmentation strategies in order to target specific groups of customers that can serve them more effectively than others. It is also imperative to use creative methods of advertisements to establish tourists’ positive favorable attitudes and perceptions toward health tourism services.
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