Between 500,000 and 550,000 tourists visited Iran from neighboring countries for medical purposes during the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2019), the head of Health and Medical Education Ministry’s Health Tourism Bureau said.

Saeed Hashemzadeh added that the figure is estimated to increase this year, Donya-e-Eqtesad reported.

“Close to 72,000 of these tourists were hospitalized and the rest were outpatients. Around 70% of health tourists visiting Iran seek services in five medical fields, namely gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, cardiology and cosmetic surgery,” he said. 

Hashemzadeh noted that Iran has the capacity to receive 2-2.5 million health tourists per year, particularly for outpatient services.

“Each foreign patient spends around $3,000 in Iran and this is apart from other services received by these patients and their companions,” he said.