FNA - The “5th Conference on Health Tourism in Islamic Countries” and the “2nd Conference and Exhibition of Health Tourism for Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) countries” will be hosted by Iran in 2019, said Head of the International Healthcare Association Mohammad Jahangiri on Tuesday.

Iran is set to host two international conferences on medical tourism in 2019, a senior official at the Ministry of Health and Medical Education said.

Head of International Healthcare Association Mohammad Jahangiri, said today that the “5th Conference on Health Tourism in Islamic Countries” and the “2nd Conference and Exhibition of Health Tourism for Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) countries” will be held in Iran next year.

Iran hosted all the previous rounds of the Conference on Health Tourism in Islamic Countries in four consecutive years from 2010-2013 in the northeastern city of Mashhad. Most delegates attending the event come from member states of the Organization of Islamic Conference.

The conference is mainly aimed at addressing the challenges, upper-level strategies and development plans for prioritizing health tourism among the Islamic countries.

The second edition of health tourism conference by ECO countries will be held in the northwestern city of Ardebil, after five years.

The first round was held in Iran’s northern city of Ramsar in 2014, where representatives of the health ministries as well ambassadors from 9 ECO member states, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) envoy, as well as the representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) attended the event.

Currently, many health tourists travel to Iran from Central Asian and Arab countries.

According to Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, the country’s annual revenue from health tourism is between $400 million and $500 million, while the target is to reach $2.5 billion by 2025.

Around 400 Iranian hospitals are active in the field of health tourism, and the country has projected to attract between 500,000 and 600,000 medical tourists

Geographical proximity, hot and cold mineral springs in various parts of the country as well as low-cost and high-quality health services in the fields of fertility treatment, stem cell treatment and dialysis, as well as heart, cosmetic and eye surgeries, have created new opportunities in Iran’s health tourism.

Iran has taken long strides in the field of health and hygiene.

In a relevant development early in December, hundreds of Iranian and European specialists and heart surgeons participated in the 2nd International Iran-Europe CTO-Caspian Meeting held at Razavi Hospital in the Northeastern city of Mashhad.

The congress, which was initiated in areas of congenital, structural and valve diseases, as well as chronic obstructive vascular diseases, with the presence of the custodian of Astan Quds Razavi started at the Razavi Hospital last Wednesday.

300 lectures on new subjects, 200 of which by foreign lecturers, and 100 lectures by the Iranian physicians were presented in fifty sections.

In this congress with a special focus on education, more than twenty live case and live inbox operations took place at the Razavi Hospital.