COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to tourism due to the

global nature of its pandemic effect. Health pandemics, such as the

COVID-19, are some of the various types of crises that confront the

tourism industry. While academic attention has been devoted to the

management of crises, very little is known about the use of medical

tourism as a panacea for destination recovery. Drawing from interviews

conducted with 17 medical tourists to Iran, this research note provides

nuanced cues to suggest how tourist sentiments and medical tourism

destination image can be valuable tools to aid in post-crisis recovery

strategies.