Abstract
Travel motivations, perceived risks and travel constraints, along with the attributes and characteristics of medical tourism destinations, are important issues in medical tourism. Although the importance of these factors is already known, a comprehensive theoretical model of the decision-making process of medical tourists has yet to be established, analysing the intricate relationships between the different variables involved. This article examines a large body of literature on both medical and conventional tourism in order to propose a comprehensive theoretical framework of medical tourism decision-making. Many facets of this complex phenomenon require further empirical investigation.
Highlights
Travel motivations, perceived risks and travel constraints, along with the attributes and characteristics of medical tourism destinations, are important issues in medical tourism
It is estimated that the annual number of Americans travelling abroad for healthcare services will increase to 23 million by 2017.7 the number of medical tourists moving between southern countries is extremely high; approximately 500,000 medical tourists travelled to South Africa from other African
Indirect evidence shows that medical tourists face different types of constraints; there is a lack of empirical research exploring the travel constraints of medical tourists
Summary
دور دوافع السفر والمخاطر المتصورة وقيود السفر على الصورة المستهدفة ونوايا الزيارة للسياحة الطبية. A number of studies exploring different aspects of medical tourism have recently been published, empirical insight into medical tourism is still lacking.[6,9] Much of the available literature is exploratory, anecdotal in nature and highly speculative or comprised of review articles exploring different aspects of medical tourism.[13,14,15,16] Some studies have attempted to establish relationships between various factors, such as motivation, service quality, service satisfaction and revisit intention.[10,17,18] Recently, models to explain destination selection by medical tourists have been proposed; these models are limited to a specific source or destination and are not comprehensive.[19,20] Fetscherin et al developed a scale to validate the causative factors in destination decision-making, but failed to explain these factors from the traveller’s perspective.[6] Other models to explain the decision-making processes of medical travellers do not consider geographical location, country of origin or socioeconomic status.[6,8,14,16,18] These models are mainly based on travel motivations, perceived risks and destination image and characteristics, factors which are linked to destination selection and visit intention.[21,22] Other researchers have proposed travel constraints among the factors influencing individual decision-making.[23]. This proposed framework may help in enhancing understanding of the behaviour of medical tourists and assist destination marketing specialists in formulating specific strategies to attract medical tourists
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
