Morphological Analysis of the Key Factors and UncertaintiesAffecting Medical Tourism in Yazd, Iran

Introduction: based on predictions by the world tourism organization, the future of theworld economy and international trade market will be dominated by the tourism industry,especially between 2020 and 2030. medical tourism, as a fast-growing and acceleratingindustry, will be a major contribution to the future of the tourism industry. this studywas conducted with the aim of morphological analysis of the factors and key uncertaintiesaffecting medical tourism in yazd, iran.methods: the present study identified the key factors and uncertainties of medical tourism inyazd using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods. the research sample included24 experts selected using purposive sampling method. the data collection instruments wereinterview and a questionnaire. qualitative content analysis and morphological analysis wereused to analyze the data through spss21.results: after analyzing the interviews, 19 themes for capacities and 23 themes for obstacleswere extracted. then, 41 factors, prioritized based on two criteria of importance anduncertainty, were identified using likert scale. in the second stage, 9 out of 41 factors that hadmore uncertainty and served as drivers were determined by experts.conclusion: according to the results, it is recommended that a comprehensive medicaltourism plan should be prepared for yazd province based on the drivers identified in thisstudy and introduce the medical tourism capacities in yazd to the target countries.