Generally speaking, the severe financial constraints of the municipalities on the one hand, and the inefficiency of state investment companies on the other hand, affirm the necessity of private sector participation in the efficiency of providing services to cities. The performance of the private sector in comparison with the public sector has its own properties and characteristics, the most important of which are high performance and access to diverse resources. Valuable international experience in the field of municipalities’ utilization of private sector capacities to implement urban services projects confirms this issue. The present study was conducted aiming to apply fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making technique (FMCDM) in formulating and prioritizing strategies for developing economic participation in urban management of Ahvaz Metropolis. The main research approach was developmental-applied, descriptive, analytical, and survey research. Based on the SWOT analysis, identifying and evaluating the current situation were done and then, according to the identified criteria, four strategies were developed. Finally, using FDEMATEL technique, strategies were prioritized. The research results show that the strategies such as doing pathological study in Ahvaz municipality investment; designing and providing investment packages; increasing the positive interaction with the executive and necessary devices with the participation of other interested organizations for the promotion of services and performing tasks based on laws, regulations and guidelines delegated to the municipality; forecasting the incentive system to reduce the risk of projects; providing Cadastre and GIS; designing a database of investors and urban projects; setting up an in-vestment facilitation team with the participation of departments related to the municipality; and identifying regular investment capacities related to inherent duties of the municipality are among the most important strategies in developing economic participation in Ahwaz Metropolis.

Medical tourism is an international phenomenon where some tourists travel long to reach treatment-therapeutic services because of high expenses, long waits, lacking in insurance, and applying services and insufficient access to health services in the destination. This industry, now, by making 60 billion dollars annually in international level, has been considered as one the most profitable markets and the number of countries to provide facilities and treatment services for foreign tourists tend to increase. Many countries provide applicable and legal plans for development of this industry. This paper aims at planning and improving medical tourism in megalopolis Shiraz. The dominating approach in the present study is developmental-applied and the method is descriptive, analytical and survey study. To analyze the data and to test the research hypothesis, the linear Pearson correlation and ANOVA were used. The results of the present study have indicated that all quality factors of treatment and tourism services, culture, facilities, medical and tourist equipment and ICT, had positive and direct correlation with developing medical tourism and the factor of price had negative and reverse correlation with it. In other words, the higher the price is, the less the medical tourism development is and vice versa. Also, the ANOVA showed that among medical tourists from various countries regarding satisfaction with the price of treatment and tourist services, the quality of treatment and tourist services, culture, facilities, medical and tourist equipment and ICT, there are significant differences and Kuwaiti tourists were the most satisfied tourists and Afghani ones were the least satisfied.

Tourism industry plays an important role on developing economy especially in regions where there are different historical, landscape and other natural attractions. Bavan Valley located in Nur Abad Mamasani city in Iran is one of the well-known places among tourists. The region has outstanding natural landscapes, moderate weather especially in spring and summer, low distance from the major road locating between different local regions such as Fars, Bushehr, Khuzestan, and Kohkiluye Boyer Ahmad Province. These regions provide appropriate accessibility for the citizens of highly populated cities of this province and it plays essential role of a major attractive pole in southern part of the country. The primary objective of this research is to recognize the present barriers for attracting tourists and to analyze the tourists’ satisfactions associated with the facilities and tourist services. The statistical population of this research includes all the tourists of Bavan Valley in which 381 individuals were chosen as the sample of this research, using Cochran & apos; s formula. The results indicate that there is a significant relationship between the absence of advertisement about Bavan Valley and the number of tourists in this zone (P & LT; 0.05). The findings also show that there is a significant relationship between lack of infrastructural equipments and un-development in tourism industry (P & LT; 0.05). Moreover, the findings of SWOT analysis indicates that 9 internal strength versus 10 internal weaknesses and 7 external chance versus 8 external threat were recognized and analyzed with regard to ecotourism in this zone. Thus, generally 16 strength and chances as the advantages and 18 weaknesses and threats as the obstacles about the Bavan Valley’s tourism were recognized in order to develop tourism.