رحیم خاکی

Health tourism, a rapidly expanding global sector, integrates medical services with cultural, ethical, and spiritual experiences. Women entrepreneurs play a central role in this domain; however, their engagement with emerging technologies and their entrepreneurial resilience are strongly shaped by religious beliefs and cultural values. Despite growing scholarly attention, the spiritual and cultural dimensions of women’s entrepreneurship in health tourism have not been systematically reviewed or conceptually synthesized. To address this gap, this article conducts a systematic literature review of 70 peer-reviewed studies published between 2018 and 2025, following the PRISMA protocol and using thematic synthesis. The review identifies and integrates recurring themes that link religion, culture, resilience, and technology adoption among women entrepreneurs in health tourism. Findings show that religious beliefs—particularly within Muslim-majority contexts—are conceptualized as forms of spiritual capital that strengthen women’s resilience, ethical leadership, legitimacy, and adaptive capacity. Cultural values such as collectivism, gender norms, and uncertainty avoidance emerge as both barriers and facilitators to technology adoption. Based on these synthesized insights, this review presents an integrative conceptual framework that maps how spirituality and culture interact to influence adaptive, technology-driven entrepreneurial strategies. The framework advances theoretical understanding at the intersection of tourism, culture, and spirituality, offers cross-cultural and gender-sensitive insights, and provides guidance for policymakers and practitioners to design empowerment and digital training programs aligned with religious and cultural contexts. Ultimately, this review contributes to the development of inclusive, ethics-driven, and sustainable health tourism ecosystems worldwide.