A tourism official criticized the government's neglectful approach to medical tourism, depriving the country of a considerable potential source of national income.
"The medical tourism, which offers a potential to attract many millions of tourists from the region and beyond, has been left neglected and is being managed only by one person," Mohammad Reza Pouyandeh said in a recent talk with IRNA.
"In the not too distant past, our health and medical sector had a secretariat and was run by a specialized committee but the number of its experts has dropped to one," he said.
Pouyandeh, who heads the Revitalization and Utilization Fund for Historical Places, noted that plans to revitalize the medical tourism market have been hampered by the differences between the Health Ministry and the tourism authority.
Medical tourists are people who travel to a country other than their own to obtain medical treatment.
In the past, this usually referred to those who traveled from less-developed countries to major medical centers in highly developed countries for treatment unavailable at home.
However, in recent years, it may equally refer to those from developed countries who travel to developing countries for inexpensive medical treatments.
Based on the Sixth Economic Development Plan (2016-21), Iran is projected to attract between 500,000 and 600,000 medical tourists every year. However, some officials have questioned the feasibility of the target.
Iran's ultimate goal is to earn around $25 billion a year through tourism by 2025, around $2.5 billion of which will come from medical tourism.
