Exploring visit intention to India for medical tourism using an extended theory of planned behaviour

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the factors influencing the visit intention of medical tourists to India. This study also attempts to extend the theory of planned behaviour through the integration of perceived risk and facilitating condition.Design/methodology/approachPrimary data were collected from a sample of 326 medical tourists arriving in India through Terminal-3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI-T3), New Delhi, India, during the months of October–December 2019. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling are deployed to analyze the collected data and validate the proposed research model.FindingsThe outputs of this study revealed that perceived financial risk, physical risk, psychological risk and facilitating conditions available in a country are significantly linked to the attitude of a medical tourist. Similarly, facilitating conditions available in a country are significantly related to perceived behavioural control of a medical tourist. Furthermore, it is also revealed that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control are significantly related to visit intention of medical tourists to India; however, the perceived time risk and performance risk are insignificantly associated with the visit intention.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is restricted to the opinion of 326 sample respondents consisting of medical tourists who arrived in India through IGI-T3, New Delhi, during October–December 2019. In the future, a similar type of study may be conducted in different parts of the country with a relatively larger sample sizeOriginality/valueThis study addresses the need for advancing the knowledge on the factors in determining visit intention of medical tourists towards India. This knowledge will become very crucial for India's medical tourism industry, which is aiming to attain a competitive edge in the global market.