IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v58y2017icp154-163.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Connecting with prospective medical tourists online: A cross-sectional analysis of private hospital websites promoting medical tourism in India, Malaysia and Thailand

Author

Listed:
  • Moghavvemi, Sedigheh
  • Ormond, Meghann
  • Musa, Ghazali
  • Mohamed Isa, Che Ruhana
  • Thirumoorthi, Thinaranjeney
  • Bin Mustapha, Mohd Zulkhairi
  • Kanapathy, Kanagi A./P.
  • Chiremel Chandy, Jacob John

Abstract

Websites of private hospitals promoting medical tourism are important marketing channels for showcasing and promoting destinations' medical facilities and their array of staff expertise, services, treatments and equipment to domestic and foreign patient-consumers alike. This study examines the websites of private hospitals promoting medical tourism in three competing Asian countries (India, Malaysia and Thailand) in order to look at how these hospitals present themselves online and seek to appeal to the perceived needs of (prospective) medical tourists. The content and format of 51 hospitals are analyzed across five dimensions: hospital information and facilities, admission and medical services, interactive online services, external activities, and technical items. Results show differences between Indian, Malaysian and Thai hospital websites, pointing to the need for hospital managers to improve their hospitals’ online presence and interactivity.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:58:y:2017:i:c:p:154-163
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2016.10.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517716301881
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.10.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yu, Ji Yun & Ko, Tae Gyou, 2012. "A cross-cultural study of perceptions of medical tourism among Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists in Korea," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 80-88.
    2. Paul Benjamin Lowry & Anthony Vance & Greg Moody & Bryan Beckman & Aaron Read, 2008. "Explaining and Predicting the Impact of Branding Alliances and Web Site Quality on Initial Consumer Trust of E-Commerce Web Sites," Post-Print halshs-00684347, HAL.
    3. Stephanie T Broyles & Amanda E Staiano & Kathryn T Drazba & Alok K Gupta & Melinda Sothern & Peter T Katzmarzyk, 2012. "Elevated C-Reactive Protein in Children from Risky Neighborhoods: Evidence for a Stress Pathway Linking Neighborhoods and Inflammation in Children," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-8, September.
    4. Milica Z. Bookman & Karla R. Bookman, 2007. "Medical Tourism in Developing Countries," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-60565-7.
    5. 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.
    6. Grigoroudis, Evangelos & Litos, Charalambos & Moustakis, Vassilis A. & Politis, Yannis & Tsironis, Loukas, 2008. "The assessment of user-perceived web quality: Application of a satisfaction benchmarking approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 187(3), pages 1346-1357, June.
    7. João P. da Cruz & Nuno A. M. Araújo & Frank Raischel & Pedro G. Lind, 2015. "A thermostatistical approach to scale-free networks," International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 26(06), pages 1-12.
    8. Connell, John, 2013. "Contemporary medical tourism: Conceptualisation, culture and commodification," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-13.
    9. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12465 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Hankin, Robin K. S., 2015. "Circular Statistics in R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 66(b05).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Asyraf Afthanorhan & Zainudin Awang & Sharifah Fazella, 2017. "Perception of Tourism Impact and Support Tourism Development in Terengganu, Malaysia," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-11, September.
    2. Moghavvemi, Sedigheh & Woosnam, Kyle M. & Paramanathan, Tanuosha & Musa, Ghazali & Hamzah, Amran, 2017. "The effect of residents’ personality, emotional solidarity, and community commitment on support for tourism development," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 242-254.
    3. Hallow Al-Talabani & Hasan Kilic & Ali Ozturen & Suhad Othman Qasim, 2019. "Advancing Medical Tourism in the United Arab Emirates: Toward a Sustainable Health Care System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, January.
    4. Georgia Giannake & Athina Economou & Theodore Metaxas & Mary Geitona, 2023. "Medical Tourism in the Region of Thessaly, Greece: Opinions and Perspectives from Healthcare Providers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-16, May.
    5. Vinaytosh Mishra & Mohita G. Sharma, 2021. "Framework for Promotion of Medical Tourism: A Case of India," International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 103-111, December.
    6. Muhammad N. Abdul-Rahman & Thowayeb H. Hassan & Ahmed H. Abdou & Mostafa A. Abdelmoaty & Mahmoud I. Saleh & Amany E. Salem, 2023. "Responding to Tourists’ Intentions to Revisit Medical Destinations in the Post-COVID-19 Era through the Promotion of Their Clinical Trust and Well-Being," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, January.
    7. Mohammad Jamal Khan & Firoz Khan & Saba Amin & Shankar Chelliah, 2020. "Perceived Risks, Travel Constraints, and Destination Perception: A Study on Sub-Saharan African Medical Travellers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, April.
    8. Supawat Meeprom & Surachai Chancharat, 2022. "Building Health and Wellness Service Experience Extension: A Case Study of Bangkok, Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-18, September.
    9. Muhammad Ali & Anita Medhekar, 2018. "Healthcare Quality of Bangladesh and Outbound Medical Travel to Thailand," Economy of region, Centre for Economic Security, Institute of Economics of Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, vol. 1(2), pages 575-588.
    10. Amaresh Panda & Sanjay Mohapatra, 2021. "Online Healthcare Practices and Associated Stakeholders: Review of Literature for Future Research Agenda," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 46(2), pages 71-85, June.
    11. Jay Parekh & Azain Jaffer & Urvi Bhanushali & Shekhar Shukla, 2021. "Disintermediation in medical tourism through blockchain technology: an analysis using value-focused thinking approach," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 69-96, March.
    12. Inessa Tyan & Antonio Guevara-Plaza & Mariemma I. Yagüe, 2021. "The Benefits of Blockchain Technology for Medical Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-12, November.
    13. Jaapar, Mustaffa & Musa, Ghazali & Moghavvemi, Sedigheh & Saub, Roslan, 2017. "Dental tourism: Examining tourist profiles, motivation and satisfaction," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 538-552.
    14. Jay Parekh & Azain Jaffer & Urvi Bhanushali & Shekhar Shukla, 0. "Disintermediation in medical tourism through blockchain technology: an analysis using value-focused thinking approach," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-28.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Panchapakesan, P., 2013. "Antecedents of customer loyalty in medical tourism," Working Papers Series 2 13-03, ISCTE-IUL, Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL).
    2. 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).
    3. Connell, John, 2013. "Contemporary medical tourism: Conceptualisation, culture and commodification," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-13.
    4. Laura Kemppainen & Veera Koskinen & Harley Bergroth & Eetu Marttila & Teemu Kemppainen, 2021. "Health and Wellness–Related Travel: A Scoping Study of the Literature in 2010-2018," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, May.
    5. Ozcan, Mustafa, 2018. "The role of renewables in increasing Turkey's self-sufficiency in electrical energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2629-2639.
    6. Han, Heesup & Hyun, Sunghyup Sean, 2015. "Customer retention in the medical tourism industry: Impact of quality, satisfaction, trust, and price reasonableness," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 20-29.
    7. Yongrok Choi & Zamira Ashurova & Hyoungsuk Lee, 2021. "Sustainable Governance on the Intention of Medical Tourism in Uzbekistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-18, June.
    8. Salman Majeed & Changbao Lu & Mahwash Majeed & Muahmmad Naeem Shahid, 2018. "Health Resorts and Multi-Textured Perceptions of International Health Tourists," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-26, April.
    9. Mohammad Jamal Khan & Firoz Khan & Saba Amin & Shankar Chelliah, 2020. "Perceived Risks, Travel Constraints, and Destination Perception: A Study on Sub-Saharan African Medical Travellers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, April.
    10. Divya Chaudhry, 2022. "Is Medical Tourism Really Unethical? An Alternate Perspective for Developing Countries," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 7(2), pages 145-157, July.
    11. Hilšerová Monika, 2022. "Medical Tourists’ Satisfaction and Decision-Making Factors with a focus on the Czech Republic," Czech Journal of Tourism, Sciendo, vol. 11(1-2), pages 60-83, December.
    12. Söder, Lennart & Lund, Peter D. & Koduvere, Hardi & Bolkesjø, Torjus Folsland & Rossebø, Geir Høyvik & Rosenlund-Soysal, Emilie & Skytte, Klaus & Katz, Jonas & Blumberga, Dagnija, 2018. "A review of demand side flexibility potential in Northern Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 654-664.
    13. Dangor Faheem & Hoogendoorn Gijsbert & Moolla Raeesa, 2015. "Medical tourism by Indian-South Africans to India: an exploratory investigation," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 29(29), pages 19-30, September.
    14. Ricardo Pagan & Daniel Horsfall, 2020. "Medical Tourism Markets: Models of Sustainability. The Case of Spain and The Costa del Sol (Malaga)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-17, October.
    15. Tizian Heinz & Annette Eidmann & Axel Jakuscheit & Tino Laux & Maximilian Rudert & Ioannis Stratos, 2023. "Demographics and Trends for Inbound Medical Tourism in Germany for Orthopedic Patients before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-11, January.
    16. Di Marcoberardino, G. & Chiarabaglio, L. & Manzolini, G. & Campanari, S., 2019. "A Techno-economic comparison of micro-cogeneration systems based on polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell for residential applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 692-705.
    17. Salman Majeed & Zhimin Zhou & Haywantee Ramkissoon, 2020. "Beauty and Elegance: Value Co-Creation in Cosmetic Surgery Tourism," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(2), pages 21582440209, June.
    18. Neha Malhotra & Kartik Dave, 2022. "An Assessment of Competitiveness of Medical Tourism Industry in India: A Case of Delhi NCR," International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 215-228, December.
    19. Khoa Nguyen Duc & Nhu Y Dang Thi, 2020. "Economic Motives and Problems of Health Tourism in Asia Pacific," Czech Journal of Tourism, Sciendo, vol. 9(1), pages 22-40, December.
    20. 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.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:58:y:2017:i:c:p:154-163. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.