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Medical travel facilitator websites: An exploratory study of web page contents and services offered to the prospective medical tourist

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  • Cormany, Dan
  • Baloglu, Seyhmus

Abstract

The growing trend of traveling outside of one's country for medical services, commonly known as “medical tourism” is expected to continue to grow exponentially in the next ten years (Keckley, 2008). With multiple destinations from which to select, and available information representing this type of travel being of variable reliability, many prospective medical travelers turn to the use of a “medical tourism facilitator”, who perform a variety of trip coordination responsibilities for the medical traveler. These medical tourism facilitators, themselves a new phenomenon to support travel to various global regions, may operate within the traveler's home country or the destination region. This study explores the services offered on medical tourism facilitators' websites to the prospective traveler. Through the application of correspondence analysis, it was discovered that differences in both website content and in services offered varied by the continent upon which the facilitator operated. With little yet known as to the motivations of a medical traveler in the selection of a specific destination, these discovered differences may be a first insight into regional differences that may play a role in such destination selection.

Suggested Citation

  • Cormany, Dan & Baloglu, Seyhmus, 2011. "Medical travel facilitator websites: An exploratory study of web page contents and services offered to the prospective medical tourist," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 709-716.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:32:y:2011:i:4:p:709-716
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2010.02.008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Milica Z. Bookman & Karla R. Bookman, 2007. "Medical Tourism in Developing Countries," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-60565-7.
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    1. Moghavvemi, Sedigheh & Ormond, Meghann & Musa, Ghazali & Mohamed Isa, Che Ruhana & Thirumoorthi, Thinaranjeney & Bin Mustapha, Mohd Zulkhairi & Kanapathy, Kanagi A./P. & Chiremel Chandy, Jacob John, 2017. "Connecting with prospective medical tourists online: A cross-sectional analysis of private hospital websites promoting medical tourism in India, Malaysia and Thailand," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 154-163.
    2. Marya Wani & Vishnupriya Raghavan & Dolphy Abraham & Virginia Kleist, 0. "Beyond utilitarian factors: User experience and travel company website successes," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-17.
    3. Panchapakesan, P., 2013. "Antecedents of customer loyalty in medical tourism," Working Papers Series 2 13-03, ISCTE-IUL, Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL).
    4. Padilla-Meléndez, Antonio & del Águila-Obra, Ana Rosa, 2013. "Web and social media usage by museums: Online value creation," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 892-898.
    5. Connell, John, 2013. "Contemporary medical tourism: Conceptualisation, culture and commodification," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-13.
    6. Cameron, Keri & Crooks, Valorie A. & Chouinard, Vera & Snyder, Jeremy & Johnston, Rory & Casey, Victoria, 2014. "Motivation, justification, normalization: Talk strategies used by Canadian medical tourists regarding their choices to go abroad for hip and knee surgeries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 93-100.
    7. Dalia Perkumienė & Milita Vienažindienė & Biruta Švagždienė, 2019. "Cooperation Perspectives in Sustainable Medical Tourism: The Case of Lithuania," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-15, June.
    8. Jiang, Lei & Wu, Huazhang & Song, Yang, 2022. "Diversified demand for health tourism matters: From a perspective of the intra-industry trade," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    9. Marya Wani & Vishnupriya Raghavan & Dolphy Abraham & Virginia Kleist, 2017. "Beyond utilitarian factors: User experience and travel company website successes," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 769-785, August.
    10. PENG, Xue, 2013. "A study on the tourism destination image of Japan in the Chinese market," AGI Working Paper Series 2013-09, Asian Growth Research Institute.
    11. Liao, Ziqi & Shi, Xinping, 2017. "Web functionality, web content, information security, and online tourism service continuance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 258-263.
    12. Ruhet Genç, 2015. "Enhancement Approach in Well&Illness Tourism," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 11(2), pages 40-50, April.
    13. Olkiewicz, Marcin, 2016. "The Impact Of Medical Tourism On The Quality Of Organizational And Functional Changes In The Polish Healthcare System," UTMS Journal of Economics, University of Tourism and Management, Skopje, Macedonia, vol. 7(1), pages 109-121.

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