TABNAK, Feb 12: Iranian Minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Reza Salehi-Amiri, in a meeting with the Secretary-General of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Nasser Al-Mutairi, announced Tehran is hosting the major tourism exhibition which is a good opportunity to introduce the tourism capacities of the member countries.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of the 18th Tehran International Tourism Exhibition.
There are over a million historical monuments, over 40,000 nationally registered monuments and 28 UNESCO world heritage sites in Iran.
Moreover, experts say Iran has the potential to generate €6 billion annually from medical tourism with proper planning.
Currently, the country's annual revenue from health tourism stands at €700 million.
Iran aims at becoming a healthcare hub for West Asia in the coming years, which includes plans to export €1 billion worth of vaccines and medical equipment annually.
Iran's current annual exports of medicine amount to €200 million, but this figure can easily be scaled up to €1 billion with the right infrastructure and market strategies.
However, this requires better support systems and confidence-building measures for foreign medical tourists.
According to a report released by the Iranian Health Ministry in August 2023, Iran received about one million medical tourists annually, with foreign patients seeking treatments across various specialties. “Every year, one million foreign patients are treated in Iran,” the report stated, underlining the country’s growing influence in the global health sector.
In the last Iranian calendar year, which ended in March 2024, Iran’s medical tourism revenues reached $1 billion. A total of 247 hospitals and medical centers across the country have been specially licensed to cater to international patients.
Most of Iran’s medical tourists come from neighboring countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Oman, Bahrain, Armenia, and Tajikistan. Iran was ranked 46th in the Medical Tourism Index for 2020-2021, further establishing its presence as a leading destination for affordable yet high-quality healthcare.
