Factors influencing selection of medical tourism destinations: A special niche market

Zarei, Azim; Feiz, Davood; Minbashrazgah, Morteza Maleki; Maleki, Fatemeh

doi:10.1080/20479700.2018.1492764

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Ease of travel has boosted the influx of patients from developed countries to developing countries, especially if they offer specialised care destinations (Lunt and Carrera, 2010;Skountridaki, 2017). A study undertaken in India cites the unavailability of "ease of travel' as one of the most important barriers to the development of medical tourism and medical tourists prefer destinations with similar cultures, languages, and food habits (Zarei et al, 2020;Momeni et al, 2018).…”

Section: International Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding barriers to inbound medical tourism in the United Arab Emirates from a provider's perspective

Mishra

Rana

2022

WHATT

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PurposeThe purpose of the study is to identify the important barriers to the development of medical tourism in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Further, it aims to establish a relationship among these barriers and propose a framework to overcome them.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a narrative review of the literature to identify barriers to medical tourism development (MDT) in the UAE. Using a graph theory-based Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) approach to explaining the hierarchy of the identified barriers and interpret the relationship links. The study further uses Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis to validate the finding of the study and derive conclusions.FindingsThe study identifies barriers related to MDT as (1) Policies and Regulations (2) Government support (3) Healthcare costs (4) Healthcare Capacity (5) Healthcare Quality (6) Medical Insurance (7) Facilitator and Marketing (8) International Relations (9) Ease of Travel, and (10) Religion, Culture, and Language. The study concludes that Healthcare Cost, Healthcare Quality, and the inapplicability of international medical insurance are the most important barriers. More than fifty percent of barriers fall under the linkage quadrant in MICMAC analysis which reflects that overcoming one barrier helps in overcoming other barriers as well.Originality/valueThis study is one of the most comprehensive accounts of the barriers to MDT in the UAE and strategies to overcome these barriers. To the best of our knowledge, we were not able to find a similar study.

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Section: International Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding barriers to inbound medical tourism in the United Arab Emirates from a provider's perspective

Mishra

Rana

2022

WHATT

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“…Whilst, other most current literature are mainly offering frameworks on MT's desired attributed for healthcare services (Wongkit and McKercher, 2016) determinants and influencing factors of MT destination (Zarei et al, 2018), theoretical model of travel motivation, perceived risks and mobility barriers over MT destination image (Khan et al, 2017) and medical marketing in Asia (Zarei and Maleki, 2019). Hence, due to previous studies that are rather specific and over a concerning literature span interval, this study would endeavor to propose a literature novelty over the status quo of Thailand's MT growth over community inequality -and would particularly assess economic, social, healthcare, and environmental factors.…”

Section: Statement Of Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another claim, a vacation with traveling abroad to obtain medical services, should include relaxation activities (Connell, 2006b;Heung et al, 2010). Most recently, Cham et al (2020), Raggio et al (2020) and Zarei et al (2018) mentioned the potential pull factors of MT as an emergent niche industry, from several different analysis such as better service quality, various leisure offers and budlings, value of money, and medical legal systems. While Cham et al (2020) explored the generic premise of MT as an overarching offer of healthcare capped with tourism services like beach visit, wellness experience, and/or religious retreat, Zarei et al (2018) touched the core attarctive factor of MT as an avenue for an individuals to seek legal procedure of physical sexual indentity changes whereby the home country's laws may hinder.…”

Section: Literature Review Theory Of Medical Tourismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Growth of Medical Tourism and the Impacts on Local Wellbeing Equality: A Case of Thailand

Syah¹,

DEEMOD²,

LI³

et al. 2022

GTG

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Within the Asia-Pacific region, the growth of medical tourism (MT) in Thailand has been gearing toward a monumental progress. Consequentially, the various research of its policy, strategy and service management have been explored and furthered. Contradictory, the study of local wellbeing equality over the MT has, unfortunately, been in hiatus. The objective of the study is to further the current premise of the literature, test, and prove; arguing that from Thai society's perspectives, the promising MT growth in the kingdom does not necessarily mean an equal establishment of the community’s wellbeing. A quantitative methodology employed and linear regression by SPSS run. 0f 600 online and paper questionnaires distributed to Thai’s medical doctors, resident doctors, medical students (senior year), and tourism scholars, 528 responses were attained. All four tested hypotheses on the perceived growth of Thailand’s MT toward local community’s unequal economic, social, healthcare, and environmental aspects, approved. That interprets the issue of policy isolation between MT’s investment versus community’s benefits.

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“…Beyond demographics characteristics, proximity is a factor that influences the decisionmaking to engage in medical tourism (Abadi et al, 2018). Proximity is geographic as well as cultural and linguistic (Zarei et al, 2020). In sum, there are a variety of empirical factors associated with the decision to engage in medical tourism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attracting a geographically diverse patient base: who is willing to travel for hospital care?

Thornton

Howard

Martin

2022

IJPHM

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Purpose Medical tourism, characterized by patients leaving their home community to seek health-care services elsewhere, is on the rise globally. In New York state, approximately 5% of the 35,661,559 hospital visits in 2018 were non-residents. Although some are visiting New York for other reasons, and unintentionally wind up hospitalized – a percentage of this population come to New York intentionally to seek care. Understanding the make-up, needs and patterns of this population allows hospitals to tailor investments in marketing, technological resources and culturally responsive initiatives to prepare for broadening their patient population and remain competitive globally. Design/methodology/approach Using a rich all-hospital discharge data set, the authors identify patterns in diagnoses, treatment and hospital choice of patients who intentionally travel across borders for health care. The authors model the characteristics associated with “elective” admit patients with a multivariate logistic regression approach. Findings The authors find that among non-resident patients in New York, domestic travelers, those using insurance plans for payment and women are positively associated with seeking elective inpatient care across border. There are clear patterns of type of treatment that is more likely to be sought, with care for musculoskeletal concerns accounting for more than one-third of all non-resident elective admissions. Proximity also matters, both in terms of patients being more likely to live in a travel zone adjacent to the state, as well as being more likely to seek care from hospitals in counties closest to the borders. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study, using a large set of claims data, that is able to empirically differentiate between patients who travel to NY for the primary purpose of obtaining health care versus those who emergently must access care while traveling for other reasons. This approach can inform future studies seeking to better understand patient migration patterns and strategic educational and marketing initiatives to motivate consumers to cross borders to seek care.

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Factors influencing selection of medical tourism destinations: A special niche market

Cited by 25 publications

References 40 publications

Understanding barriers to inbound medical tourism in the United Arab Emirates from a provider's perspective

Understanding barriers to inbound medical tourism in the United Arab Emirates from a provider's perspective

The Growth of Medical Tourism and the Impacts on Local Wellbeing Equality: A Case of Thailand

Attracting a geographically diverse patient base: who is willing to travel for hospital care?

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