Head of the tourism office at Iran’s Ministry of Health said on Friday that more than one million medical tourists take trips over the Iranian cities each year.
Most of them are from neighboring countries including Iraq and Afghanistan, Mohammad Reza Tarjoman said at a press conference.
Tarjoman at his remarks referred to the number of medical centers which are 200 and have permission to accept foreign patients.
As he underlined, Iran is ranked 46 worldwide in the area of health tourism.
Medical tourism brings three to five thousand dollars of foreign exchange to the country, Tarjoman noted.
At his remarks, the official pointed to the issue of the pandemic which has seriously hurt health tourism.
The deadly coronavirus has caused 73 percent decrease in country’s health tourism in two years, Tarjoman added.
The deadly coronavirus has killed over 6,200,000 worldwide since its outbreak in December 2019. Many world leaders did postpone or cancel many events and sports games as preemptive measures to fight the pandemic.
According to Tarjoman’s remarks, Iran has proper potentials in health tourism.
He went on to say that Islamic Republic attaches importance to the health tourism marketing.
As he stressed, holding the related meetings and conferences and attending international events can help attract the tourists.
According to Iranian officials, the first international conference on health tourism is slated for June 14-17 in the northern Iranian province of Golestan.