Medical Tourism Markets: Models of Sustainability. The Case of Spain and The Costa del Sol (Malaga)

Abstract

The interest and relevance of medical tourism has increased significantly over the last few decades, and it has become a very lucrative source of income and profit for many firms. This paper analyses the sustainability of the medical tourism model in Spain in general, and in The Costa del Sol (Spain) in particular, in order to investigate the potential challenges that the domestic industry will face in the future. For this purpose, we first analysed the process of the globalization of health services and the main characteristics of the Spanish medical tourism industry (in terms of tourism and health services). Second, we examined the data availability on medical tourism for the cases of Spain, Andalusia and The Costa del Sol, and identified who travels, why, and for what reasons. The results show that Spain and The Costa del Sol offer high-quality medical and tourism facilities and services with very competitive prices, and with the high commitment and support of public local authorities, tourism and health providers, and universities. However, the lack of a real leadership, well-defined strategy, financial support, and specific training programs are considered to be crucial challenges for the near future. In addition to this, the novel coronavirus, the economic crisis, Brexit and the situation of British expats living in Spain and The Costa del sol are also discussed.

International Demand for Medical Tourism in Malaysia: Evidence from Panel Data

“…Specifically, the price of medical tourism is statistically significant in affecting the demand for medical tourism in Malaysia. The finding is aligned with the previous authors (Pagan & Horsfall, 2020;Heung et al, 2010;Hopkins et al, 2010). This implies that 1% increase in price of medical tourism will lead to decrease in the demand for Malaysia's medical tourism by 0.06%.…”

“…Therefore, to generate a positive destination image among medical tourists and to ensure sustainable growth in this sector, medical tourism marketers should initiate more interactive forms of communication and promotion through social media and other online marketing platforms. Pagan and Horsfall (2020) in determining the sustainability of the medical tourism model in Spain and The Costa del Sol stated that the high-quality medical tourism services, tourism facilities and extremely competitive prices as well as high commitment and support of public local authorities, and health providers are among the main determinants of sustainability of medical tourism in these regions. Nonetheless, Mosammam et al (2019), highlighted that resource endowment is the main determinant of health tourism competitiveness in Iran.…”

“…There are different definitions of medical tourism as some authors view it from supply side (Goodrich & Goodrich, 1987;MacReady, 2007), while other authors view from the demand side of it (see among others, Pagan & Horsfall, 2020;Haque et al, 2018;Heung et al, 2010;Johnston et al, 2010).…”

Digital Entrepreneurship via Sustainable Online Communication of Dentistry Profession, Oradea, Romania: A Longitudinal Analysis

“…In this way the growth of medical tourism markets could also be helped, offering some models of sustainability in a large sense [29]. But we should not ignore that all these entrepreneurial opportunities involve several ethical considerations and bioethical limits [30].…”

Russian healthcare in the development of medical tourism

“…Medical tourism is one of the most profitable types of modern tourism, which determines the economy of a huge number of countries all over the world. The global medical tourism sector has one of the highest rates of growth and development; more than fifty countries indicate this direction as one of the goals of national policies that contribute to the emergence of a new concept of health [6,7,8]. According to this concept, if a person cannot get the necessary medical care in the country of permanent residence, he can apply for this help in another country, as well as independently choose a hospital and / or attending doctor offering the necessary medical services [9,10].…”