Web-based Information for Medical Tourism: Case Study of AriaMedTour Medical Tourism Company, Iran

Objective: As one of the well-known countries for medical tourism, Iran has the potential for growth in this industry and requires information and advertisements in online media and websites. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the content produced by the website of AriaMedTour Medical Tourism Company in informing tourists. Methods: This is an applied study that adopted an inductive approach in which the netnography qualitative research method was used. Data were collected in three forms: archive data, extracted data and field data, from the AriaMedtour website in 2021 and online data were analyzed in two stages of content analysis and analysis of customer comments and keywords in ATLAS.ti software. Results: The results of content analysis showed that the content of the website falls into three categories of relational, organizational and advertising. Analysis of medical tourists' opinions also showed that the website was able to cover all the information needed by tourists. The tourists were satisfied with the information and services of the company and were mostly looking for information about costs, Iran, accommodation, food, and availability of translators. They get most of their information from the videos of tourists received the company's services. Conclusion: The use of web-based platforms focusing on relational, advertising, and organizational contents for informing and attracting medical tourists is very effective.