TEHRAN - On Thursday, a host of local officials, healthcare professionals, and travel insiders inaugurated a center dedicated to medical tourism in Nowshahr of Mazandaran province, northern Iran.

“The property, which covers an area of 6,000 square meters, marks Mazandaran’s first medical tourism center,” IRNA reported.

Having a gross floor area of 1,500 square meters, the medical tourism hub offers a wide variety of medical services, the report said.

The number of medical tourists visiting Iran is around one million people per annum, an official with Health Ministry said in August. “We consider this sector as health diplomacy, which is a suitable platform to develop the country’s international interactions, ” said Mohammad-Hossein Niknam, who presides over the ministry’s department for international cooperation.

Experts say Iran’s medical tourism is a win-win opportunity both for the country and foreign patients, as they are offered affordable yet quality treatment services and the country gains considerable foreign currency.

The ancient country is known in the world as an affordable destination for health tourism, and the government is making a great effort to attract more medical tourists in the years to come. Credible surgeons and physicians, cutting-edge medical technologies, high-tech medicine and diverse specializations, super affordable procedures, and finally its hospitable people, are considered Iran’s trump card when it comes to medical tourism.

In the global scene, medical tourism is booming worldwide, as about 20 to 24 million people are traveling for medical treatments annually. Factors such as increased care needs over longer lifespans, rising healthcare costs, and constant pressures on some insurance industries are reasons behind why some opt to travel abroad.

AFM