Domestic Medical Tourism: A Neglected Dimension of Medical Tourism Research

Abstract

To date, the literature on medical tourism has focused almost exclusively on international medical tourism, or medical services outsourced to other countries. However, there are a growing number of patients who travel for medical care within their own country. Medical tourism experts have suggested that competition introduced from abroad, combined with health care reform, may stimulate improvement in health care offerings in the United States, and lead to an increase in such medical tourism. This article will therefore extend the literature by examining domestic medical tourism in the United States. There is a scarcity of research investigating consumer attitudes and beliefs towards the concept of medical tourism—particularly for domestic medical tourism. The authors present a new model, along with a research agenda for studying both attitudes towards such tourism, as well as the potential impact of domestic medical tourism on regional economies in the United States.