Payesh (Aug 2018)
Designing media diplomacy for international awareness for health tourism
Abstract
Objective (s): Health tourism has a high strategic importance for the economy of the country due to its high capacity to create foreign currency earning and job creation through attracting tourists and exporting healthcare and helping the country to engage constructive interaction with the countries of the region and the world and promoting internal convergence. Health tourism in Iran, despite the high quality of healthcare services and low prices, has not yet reached its proper position in the global market and it is taking its first steps due to lack of proper information-dissemination and advertising among other factors. In order to reach health tourism goals, a study was conducted to take advantage of the capacity of media diplomacy at international level. Methods: 25 in-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted from 25 participants. In this study, grounded theory of Corbin and Strauss (version 2008) was used to collect and analyze data. Data analysis was carried out in four stages including: data analyzing for concept, data analysis for context, process analysis, data and integrating categories, which resulted in the following findings. Results: Overall about 940 first-level codes (open code) were extracted without their overlap calculation. Then, these codes were compared based on existing similarities and differences and 26 sub-subcategories (including concepts and contexts) were obtained. Consequently 11 sub-categories were produced and then four main categories for concept and one main category for context were created. Finally, one core variable was emerged. The core variable was ‘integrated management in media diplomacy in public relations centers of organizations responsible for health tourism’. Conclusion: Media diplomacy in public relations centers of the organizations responsible for health tourism is in fact a channel for announcing the position of the organization at international level, sending information and convincing a foreign audience to support the organization positions. With having media diplomacy, tourism organizations can have a share in the global market.
