driving global medical tourism growth: a validated marketing model for sustainable development in east azerbaijan province, iran

Introduction: medical tourism is a rapidly growing sector in the global tourism industry,driving nations to develop strategic plans to capitalize on its potential. this study aimedto design and validate a marketing model tailored to medical tourism in east azerbaijanprovince, iran, to support sustainable growth in this sector.methods: a mixed-methods approach was employed, divided into two phases. the firstphase used sandelowski and barroso’s (2007) meta-synthesis methodology to identify keycomponents of medical tourism marketing. the second phase validated the model throughcontent validity, reliability, and construct validity assessments. a questionnaire based on themodel’s components was completed by 382 foreign tourists visiting east azerbaijan for healthservices, selected via census sampling. statistical analyses were conducted using excel 2016,amos, and spss version 21.results: the model comprised five dimensions, ten components, and forty items. contentvalidity ratio (cvr) exceeded 0.62, with content validity index (cvi) and modified kappavalues of 0.91 (relevance) and 0.92 (clarity). cronbach’s alpha (>0.7) confirmed strong reliability.confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) supported a five-factor structure: quality of services,price, development of tourism and medicine, facilities and equipment, and informationtechnology. fit indices were suitable (cfi=0.91, cmin/df=2.923, rmsea=0.078).conclusion: the validated model is suitable for medical tourism marketing and can guide east azerbaijan officials in enhancing health tourism development, attracting foreign tourists,and improving promotional efforts. this study contributes to the growing body of knowledgeon sustainable medical tourism strategies, offering a framework for global application.