FACTORS THAT AFFECT MEDICAL TOURISM AND SELECTING OF MASHHAD AS A TOURIST DESTINATION BY THE IRAQI TOURISTS

Abstract

The study aims at analyzing the most important factors that affect medical tourism as well as investigating the reasons behind the selecting of the holy city of Mashhad as a medical tourism destination by Iraqi tourists. For achieving the aims of the study, sixty questionnaire forms were distributed to a sample of Iraqi travelers and tourists, and they were fully regained. The investigation of the research is according to the method of the descriptive and analytical approach and in order to prove the hypothesis of the research, which includes the existence of an influence relationship between the number of Iraqi visitors and the multiplicity of specialized medical centers in the holy city of Mashhad. After the analysis and the explanation the results of the field study, it confirms the research hypothesis that there is a relationship between the axes of the study, which is a relation of engagement and effect of a high significance between the factors of the medical tourism and the tourist destination. The study concludes that the low cost of treatment and surgeries is one of the main reasons for the influx of Iraqi patients to the hospitals of the holy city of Mashhad. Then, it recommends that there is a necessity for establishing medical centers and specialized hospitals that serve patients suffer from different diseases in different Iraqi cities as is the case in Iranian cities.