Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 12
By Khalid Kazimov – Trend
Iran’s health tourism has seen a growth of 25 percent over the last ten years.
Mohammad Jahangiri, the head of Iranian Association for Development of Medical Tourism Services, has said that the health tourism earns the country three times more than the ordinary tourism arrivals, state-run TV IRINN reported.
The volume of job creation through the health tourism is two times more than the ordinary sector, he added.
He further added that about 300,000 patients arrived in the country over the last fiscal year (ending March 20), indicating an increase of 25 percent over the last ten years.
The official further forecasted that the country will be capable of admitting about 1.5 million tourists within the coming eight years.
Iran has already allocated about $439 billion to develop the health tourism sector, he said.
Saying that per foreign patient spends about $4,000-$8,000 for treatment in Iran, he added that the costs of visiting the country for an ordinary tourist is about $2,000-$3,000.
Jahangiri believes that the health tourism accounts for an eight percent share of the country’s job market.
Mohammad Panahi, deputy head of Association for Development of Medical Tourism Services, earlier told Trend that Iran’s revenue from medical tourism in 2015 and 2016 amounted to $1.2 billion.
The official added that the country plans to generate $5 billion in revenue from health tourism over the next five years.
About 200,000 tourists arrived in Iran from Iraq over the last fiscal 2017/18 to receive healthcare services.
Iraq, Azerbaijan and Oman respectively account for the highest number of arrivals in this sector.