Identifying and Ranking Metaverse Marketing Opportunities for Health Tourism in Iranian Military and Non-military Hospitals

Background: Health tourism holds significant potential for Iran due to its advanced medical capabilities, yet its market share remains limited. The metaverse offers a novel digital platform to enhance marketing efforts. Objectives: This study aims to identify and rank marketing opportunities in Iran's health tourism industry using metaverse technology. Methods: Conducted in 2024, this research employed a mixed-methods approach. The qualitative phase involved semi-structured interviews with experts in technology and health tourism marketing, analyzed using Graneheim and Lundman's content analysis method. Purposeful and snowball sampling methods were used to ensure diverse expert perspectives. In the quantitative phase, Shannon entropy was used to prioritize the identified opportunities. Results: Analysis of 11 interviews revealed 215 open codes, categorized into three main groups: Opportunities related to health tourism businesses (66 codes), health tourists (82 codes), and health tourism service providers (71 codes). Subcategories included social, cultural, economic, environmental, and infrastructure factors. Shannon entropy prioritization highlighted the most significant opportunities related to health tourism service providers, followed by businesses and tourists. Conclusions: Metaverse technology presents unique marketing opportunities in the health tourism sector. It facilitates better interaction between service providers and patients, enabling virtual consultations and hospital tours. Implementing this technology could enhance Iran's competitive edge in health tourism marketing. Future research should focus on the practical applications of metaverse technology in this field.