Factors Affecting the Promotion of Yazd Brand as a Health Tourism Destination with a Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping Approach

Background and Objectives: Nowadays, multi-national hospitals, competitive prices, quality of international standards and the level of specialized technologies are among the examples of globalization of health so that countries compete with each other in attracting medical tourists. The aim of this study was to identify the factors affecting the promotion of Yazd brand as a health tourism destination.
Material and Methods: This is a mixed method research, in terms of purpose is applied and in terms of data collection is a descriptive study. The factors affecting the promotion of Yazd brand were identified through literature review. Then Expert Panel of 15 health tourism experts with at least 5 years of experience were appraised and approved the criteria. A matrix questionnaire was prepared and presented to 123 tourists who had traveled to Yazd province for taking health services for the second appraise of the identified criteria. Finally, the data obtained from health tourists by using fuzzy cognitive mapping tools and techniques were analyzed, and the final model of the research was drawn by social networks analysis (SNA).
Results: The findings of analysis of experts' opinions data indicate that the factors of validity, brand performance and health tourism marketing are more central than other factors, because the total impact and effectiveness of these factors is more than other factors, so more attention should be paid to these factors.
Conclusion: Destination image has a significant role in the decision-making and destination selection process, which with the increase in the number of new tourist destinations around the world, has led to the growing importance of health services in promoting health tourism and attention to the brand of tourism destination. In order to promote the health tourism brand, paying attention to the three factors of credibility, brand performance and marketing are in the priority of this research.