TEHRAN – Iran’s Minister of Cooperatives, Labour, and Social Welfare Ahmad Meydari has announced the drafting of a medical tourism development document intended to enhance the healthcare-driven tourism sector.

Meydari emphasized that strengthening tourism is one of the key strategies for regional development and promoting regional equity in the country, the public relations office of the ministry wrote on Wednesday.

The minister highlighted that the expansion of medical tourism could play a crucial role in increasing employment opportunities, particularly in Iran’s border regions.

He also stated that the initial phase of this initiative will focus on providing medical services in the cities of Khorramshahr and Abadan in Khuzestan province, with further expansion planned for other border areas.

Meydari further elaborated that the development of the medical tourism document will be carried out in collaboration with several government bodies, including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts, as well as provincial authorities, foreign representatives, and ambassadors residing in Tehran.

Special attention will be given to the participation of neighboring and the Persian Gulf littoral states, with the private sector playing a central role in its implementation, he explained.

He underscored that while the private sector will be responsible for delivering healthcare services within the framework of medical tourism, the government will primarily serve as a facilitator in the process.

€6 billion visioned for medical tourism revenues

Last September, Mohammad-Reza Vaez-Mahdavi, Chairman of Iran’s Scientific Association of Health Economy, announced that the Islamic Republic has the potential to generate €6 billion annually from medical tourism with proper planning. He also highlighted visions to become a healthcare hub for West Asia in the coming years, which includes plans to export €1 billion worth of vaccines and medical equipment annually.

Available data suggests that Iran's current annual exports of medicine amount to €200 million. According to a report released by the Iranian Health Ministry in August 2023, Iran received about one million medical tourists annually, with foreign patients seeking treatments across various specialties. “Every year, one million foreign patients are treated in Iran,” the report stated, underlining the country’s growing influence in the global health sector.

Neighboring countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Oman, Bahrain, Armenia, and Tajikistan constitute Iran’s main source of medical tourism.

AM