Would you really recommend it? Antecedents of word-of-mouth in medical tourism

Taheri, Babak; Chalmers, Dominic; Wilson, Juliette; Arshed, Norin

doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104209

Cited by 101 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 128 publications

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“…The lack of medical knowledge and the complexity of the medical information are also reasons for WOM to become a significant source of information for patients (Hanefeld et al, 2015;Taheri et al, 2021).…”

Section: Linking Hospital Brand Image Brand Trust and Wom Communication (Pre-consumption Stage)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Marketing and social influences, hospital branding, and medical tourists' behavioural intention: Before‐ and after‐service consumption perspective

Cham

Lim

Σιγάλα

2021

Journal of Tourism Research

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The international growth of medical tourism requires hospital operators to adopt effective marketing practices to ensure survival and competitiveness. Although there is a burgeoning research on medical tourism, there is still limited knowledge about the roles of brand image and brand trust on medical tourists within the healthcare service context. This study investigates the influence of advertisements and social media communication on the hospital brand image and brand trust formation before consumption stage, and their impacts on medical tourists' perceptions and attitudes at the post-consumption stage in relation to service quality, satisfaction, and behavioural intention. Data was collected from 294 Chinese medical tourists and a structural equation modelling technique was used for testing the hypotheses. The findings revealed that advertisements and social media communication positively influence medical tourists' perception of hospital brand image, which influences their trust towards the hospital's brand. It was also found that medical tourists' perceived value and trust towards the medical staff mediates the relationship between their perceived service quality and satisfaction. Overall, the study contributes to the literature by providing evidence and understanding on hospital branding formation and its influence on the perceptions and attitudes of medical tourists before and after the consumption of the healthcare service.

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Section: Linking Hospital Brand Image Brand Trust and Wom Communication (Pre-consumption Stage)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Marketing and social influences, hospital branding, and medical tourists' behavioural intention: Before‐ and after‐service consumption perspective

Cham

Lim

Σιγάλα

2021

Journal of Tourism Research

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“…In Spain in general, and in Malaga in particular, it is quite difficult to find rigorous data on health/medical tourism from official public sources that use an internationally standardised definition, appropriate methodology and comparable indicators. In our case, we have adopted an approach based on quantitative and qualitative data (from public and private sources) which is similar to other existing studies on medical tourism [7,25]. In particular, we used information provided by the Spanish National Statistical Institute (INE, quantitative data), and the Chair of 'Tourism, Health and Wellbeing' of the University of Malaga (quantitative and qualitative data) in order to obtain the most clear and precise picture on the present and future of medical tourism in the province of Malaga.…”

Section: Data On Andalusia and Malaga (The Costa Del Sol): Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Pagán

Horsfall

2020

Sustainability

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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.

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“…In addition to the different views in terms of medical tourism discussed in the previous section, it is also reviewed and defined for potential research participants (Olya and Nia, 2020;Yusof and Rosnan, 2020). The motivation for medical tourists is to gain access to therapies or treatments intended as a cure for a specific medical subject matter, condition or problem, whereas an individual who engages in wellness travel is in overall good health and seeks treatments and experiences to maintain their well-being, as explained earlier (Smith and Puczk o, 2009;Soltani et al, 2020;Taheri et al, 2020). Wongkit and Mckercher (2013) point out that how to define medical tourism depends on the view of the stakeholder who defines it.…”

Section: Medical Touristsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Customer experience management in medical tourism (case study: Iranian hospital’s medical tourists)

Dabaghi

Ardakani

Tabataba’i-Nasab

2021

JIMA

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on the emerging phenomenon of medical tourism in the context of Iran from a customer experience management perspective and benchmark of their judgment including positive or negative, of the experience they have achieved of the Iranian health (medical) experience (CE) and suggest scenarios for the improvement of the Iranian customer experience management (CEM). Design/methodology/approach The research methodologies and research methods that are used in this descriptive-analytical research are based on an inspection of the remarkable literature related to medical tourism and customer experience management. The data gathering instrument is a researcher-made questionnaire based on the variables in the conceptual model extracted from the research literature. The study was conducted from May to August 2019. The population cohort of this study was the foreign patients calling selected Iranian hospitals and the sampling method was a purposive and snowball sample of prospective medical tourists. As the study was conducted throughout Iran, some important hospitals in Iran were selected by stratified sampling Yang et al. (2020b). The sample size and data saturation were 500 participants Lv and Song (2019). The collected data using the questionnaire were analyzed by SPSS software and statistical tests. Findings According to the results, the customer experience management statistical significance in the task aspect is (p = 0.0523), in the mechanical aspect is (p = 0.0563), in the human aspect is (p = 0.0544). The study showed positive customer experience among the patients who had been treated in the Iranian hospitals. Originality/value There is a lack of study that focuses on medical tourism and customer experience management in Iran. Therefore, based on the results of this study, the experience of medical tourists in Iran proved to be positive and satisfying. As little research has been conducted in the area of customer experience management (CEM) in Iranian medical tourism, future researchers can use these valuable results precisely and in more detail to benchmark more accurately the customer experience in all areas of medical and health tourism and other research areas in different aspects of CEM in Iran.

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Would you really recommend it? Antecedents of word-of-mouth in medical tourism

Cited by 101 publications

References 128 publications

Marketing and social influences, hospital branding, and medical tourists' behavioural intention: Before‐ and after‐service consumption perspective

Marketing and social influences, hospital branding, and medical tourists' behavioural intention: Before‐ and after‐service consumption perspective

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

Customer experience management in medical tourism (case study: Iranian hospital’s medical tourists)

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