Hamideh Beigi
Abstract
Introduction: Guilan Province, Iran, owning the advantages of tourism based on its nature, has the potential to develop healthy ecologies. This study endeavored to identify and introduce the suitable areas of these resorts in Guilan.Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, a pairwise comparison ...
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Introduction: Guilan Province, Iran, owning the advantages of tourism based on its nature, has the potential to develop healthy ecologies. This study endeavored to identify and introduce the suitable areas of these resorts in Guilan.Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, a pairwise comparison questionnaire was developed and administered to 15 nature specialists, owners of ecotourism resorts, tour guides, and nature guides, as well as tourism professors who were selected using purposeful accessible sampling method. To prioritize susceptible areas, VIKOR model was employed.Results: As a result of examining environmental indicators and based on the overlapping of output maps in Geographic Information System (GIS) environment, 18 potential zones were identified in Guilan and using VIKOR model, prioritization of identified zones was done to develop studies and planning of these tourist destinations. Zone No. 9, located in the geographical area of Rasht City with the least distance from the ideal solution (0.054), zone No. 6, in the geographical area of Parhosar and Rezvanshahr with a numerical score of 0.059, and zone No. 11 in the geographical area of Siahkal and Lahijan with a score of 0.064, were in the first to third priorities of planning and development of health ecologies, respectively.Conclusion: Capitalizing on areas prone to construction and sustainable development of health ecologies in Guilan Province has differentiated the province's tourism market, and can foster a new competitive advantage in the tourism sector.
Masoud Ferdosi; Alireza Jabbari; Mahmood Keyvanara; Zahra Agharahimi
Volume 8, Issue 8 , January 2012, , Pages 1169-1178
Abstract
Introduction: Medical tourism is a complex subject for studying. The aim of this study was to do systematically review, describe, and analyze medical tourism articles from all over the world. Methods: In order to perform this systematic review, the databases of Institute for Scientific Information ...
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Introduction: Medical tourism is a complex subject for studying. The aim of this study was to do systematically review, describe, and analyze medical tourism articles from all over the world. Methods: In order to perform this systematic review, the databases of Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Science Direct, Emerald, Oxford, Magiran, and Scientific Information Database (SID) websites were searched in 2000-2011. The retrieved articles were collected and classified using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Results: Among the total 28 studied articles, 11 original articles, 3 case studies in Mexico, India, Hungary, Germany, and Iran, and 14 narrative reviews were found. The articles mainly focused on the definition of medical tourism, medical tourists' motivations and development factors, ethical issues in medical tourism, the impact of medical tourism on health system, and medical tourism marketing. Conclusion: Our findings indicated similar definition of medical tourism in all articles despite various motivations of medical tourists. Nevertheless, there are a wide range of interests and consequences in studies, as more studies of developing countries showed the benefits of medical tourism while more developed countries pointed out the consequences of medical tourism. Ultimately, the subject of medical tourism varied according to policies and programs in each country. Therefore, comprehensive and detailed research is required to clarify the issue within the country.