Background and purpose: health tourism not only leads to the strengthening of the scientific, political, social and regional sector, it has many economic benefits. Therefore, in order to increase the economic prosperity of the country and increase the health tourism industry in Iran and to achieve a suitable position among the countries of the region, the identification of value-creating factors in the tourism industry was determined with a mixed exploratory approach. Research method: This research was conducted in the year 2022 using a mixed exploratory method. In the first stage, key indicators were identified and categorized through interviews with experts in the field of health tourism. Then, based on hierarchical analysis, priority and weights were calculated. Then, in the second stage, a questionnaire was designed, after validation by 384 of foreign national parents who had a sick child and referred to the children’s medical health tourism department between 2015 and 2022, it was completed and the results were determined based on descriptive and analytical statistics. Findings: Key indicators were obtained from the results of interviews with experts, which were classified into 4 general categories and 16 components. The results showed that the financial dimension and the growth and learning dimension were the most effective indicators in health tourism with the highest average of 3.7524 and 3.7447, respectively, and internal processes with an average of 3.5784 were the least effective indicators from the point of view of the studied community. Also, the results of Harmesir’s t-test showed that 4 financial indicators, customer, internal processes and growth and learning have a significant relationship with creating value in health tourism. Conclusion: One of the important factors in medical tourism is the factors related to medical services. The financial aspect and the cost of treatment, the level of services and credibility of medical centers and treatment staff, and the existence of laws and government support in the destination country are important and decisive issues in attracting tourists. Therefore, it is recommended to create added value in health tourism by removing challenges such as the limitations of payment methods, the existence of middlemen between health tourists and medical centers.