The Tourism Holding Company of the Social Security Organization, known by its Persian acronym Hegta, will unveil plans for developing Iran's health tourism sector this week.
Speaking to ISNA, Gholamhossein Ebrahimbay Salami, managing director of the company, said 22 hospitals across Iran and more than 200 physicians have agreed to take part in the plan.
"We're going to sign agreement with 13 regional countries to facilitate travel to Iran and provide better care to health tourists," he said.
The countries include Iraq, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Bahrain and Oman, he said, without naming all the countries involved.
"The plan in its entirety will be unveiled this week," Salami added. Hegta's plan is different from the government's health tourism program, where over 170 hospitals have been licensed to launch IPDs—international patients department–by the Health Tourism Strategic Council.
The council, which comprises representatives of health and foreign ministries, the Medical Council of Iran and Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization to organize the country’s health tourism sector, has also licensed 35 travel agencies to operate in the sector.
"In our scheme, 17 hospitals managed by the Social Security Organization and five privately-owned healthcare facilities have agreed to cooperate," Salami said, adding that some of the establishments have experience in medical tourism and operate in major cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz and Rasht.
"Some are also located in border regions, such as Kermanshah, Zabol and Zahedan," he added.
About 105,000 tourists traveled to Iran in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2017) to receive medical care. However, the figure could be higher because many medical tourists either travel independently or are brought to Iran by unauthorized entities. In neither case do travelers obtain health tourism visas, which means they're not registered as medical tourists.
Most of the tourists came from Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Persian Gulf littoral countries.
According to Mohammad Hossein Mirdehqan, director of Monitoring and Accreditation of Medical Services Office at the Health Ministry, a medical tourist spends between $3,600 and $7,600 on every trip.
So, by taking the average ($5,600), Iran's revenue from medical tourism last year amounted to $588 million, slightly more than the previously reported figures.
Based on the Sixth Economic Development Plan (2017-22), Iran is projected to attract between 500,000 and 600,000 medical tourists every year. However, some officials have questioned whether this target is feasible.
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.
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