title: The marketing mix and development of medical tourism in shiraz.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In recent years, medical tourism market has been raised as one of the income-earning and competitive industries in the world and is considered as a modern field of advanced tourism. Therefore, a great number of countries are seeking to develop this type of tourism and one of the strategies for developing this industry is using the marketing mix elements.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was a descriptive-analytic and cross sectional one. The research community included all the public and private hospitals of Shiraz among which, 7 public and 9 private hospitals were studied. The study data were collected through a researcher-made check list whose face and content validity was confirmed by the experts. Then, the data were entered into the SPSS statistical software. According to the objectives of the study, the descriptive results were presented in frequency tables and Chi-square test was used for data analysis. In addition, P<0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to the results, both public and private hospitals of Shiraz were in the best condition regarding staff and physician mix and in the worst condition concerning promoting and facilities mixes. No significant difference was found between public and private hospitals regarding the mixes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From marketing mix elements view, paying more attention to media advertisements and providing more facilities can improve the status of the hospitals which, consequently, results in attracting more medical tourists and developing this industry in Shiraz.
authors.affiliation: Health Services Management, Health Management and Economic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jabbari
authors.forename: Mohammad Kazem
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Rahimi Zarchi
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kavosi
authors.forename: Tahere
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shafaghat
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Keshtkaran
keywords: Development; Health tourism; Healthcare marketing mix; Iran; Medical tourism; Medical tourists.