Business Commons^™

Medical Tourism & Communication, Alicia Mason

Faculty Submissions

Medical tourism (MT), sometimes referred to as health tourism or medical travel, involves both the treatment of illness and the facilitation of wellness, with travel. Medical tourism is a multifaceted and multiphase process involving many agents and actors that requires careful planning and execution. The coordinated process involves the biomedical, transportation, tourism, and leisure industries. From the communication perspective, the process can be viewed as a 5-stage model consisting of the: (a) orientation, (b) preparation, (c) experiential and treatment, (d) convalescence, and (e) reflection phases. Medical tourism is uniquely situated in a nexus of academic literature related to communication, business …

Geriatric-Tourism, Pmr, And Thermal Treatments In The Third Age, Ozge Buyuk, Gulsah Akkus

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

This study aims to reveal the situation of geriatric-tourism (gerontourism) in Turkey with longitudinal data obtained from digital and social media. As a result of the study i) geriatric-tourists visiting Turkey mostly benefit from thermal treatments in complementary medicine and PMR in traditional medicine, and also resort to hair transplantation among aesthetic interventions, ii) they come mostly from Iraq and Libya (Middle East), Germany (Europe), Azerbaijan (the Turkic Republics), and Ukraine and Russia (CIS), iii) they mostly prefer big cities such as Izmir, Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya, Bursa, iv) motivation factors are cost, thermal resource richness, medical service quality and additional …

Tourism-Oncology: More Than A Treatment, Ozge Buyuk, Gulsah Akkus

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Medical tourism is a growing global niche market all over the world. In this study, which intends to assess the status of "tourism-oncology," texts obtained longitudinally from digital and social media were analyzed for content. Tourism-oncology has evolved as an economic activity within the context of medical tourism in Turkey. The research revealed that (i) oncology was among the top five, (ii) lung cancer was the cancer type that results in the most travel, (iii) the user profiles shared on social media were mostly those of travel agencies and health-consulting businesses, (iv) Istanbul, Antalya, Ankara, Izmir, and Mugla were the …

Cross-Cultural Competence As A Basis Of The Competitive Advantage Of The United States In Medical Tourism, Babu P. George

Babu George

Images Of Alzheimer’S: A Visual Analysis Of The Imagery Used To Globally Market Alzheimer’S Services Online​, Elizabeth Spencer, Alicia Mason

Faculty Submissions

Currently more than 46 million people are living with dementia globally (ADI, 2015). The World Health Organization (WHO) reports the worldwide population of persons 60 years of age and older will more than triple between 2000 and 2050 to two billion. The concept of Western patients receiving long-term dementia care in foreign countries is a new and emerging phenomenon (Gray, 2013; Pomareda, 2014; Wegerer, 2014). This study examines the visual images within Alzheimer’s care facility websites (n=105) and uses a cross cultural comparison lens to contrast differences in patient representations and treatment facilities. The goal of this study is to …

Understanding The Motivations, Information Search Needs And Destination Choice Criteria Of The Medical Tourist, Nuttapong Jotikasthira, Carmen Cox

Carmen Cox

Thailand is currently putting considerable effort into their attempts to attract a new type of traveller, the medical tourist, to visit their destination for a combination of health, medical and travel purposes. While significant research effort has been devoted to the ethical and legal issues related to medical tourism, relative limited research has focussed on the destination decision making process of people who choose to engage in medical tourism. This paper presents the results of an online survey which explores the travel motivations, information search behavior and destination choice criteria of a sample of prospective medical tourists to Thailand.

Overcoming The “Dual-Delivery” Stigma: A Review Of Patient-Centeredness In The Costa Rica Medical Tourism Industry, Alicia Mason

Faculty Submissions

Due to the growing globalization of health care and an increase in access to technology many consumers are utilizing the World Wide Web for securing medical services abroad, a phenomenon commonly known as medical tourism. The current investigation employs an emic cultural approach for analyzing the Western concept of patient-centeredness within several public and private medical facilities within Costa Rica. Through a detailed field investigation and personal interviews with directors of Costa Rica’s largest accrediting institutions (AAAAF and ProMed), hospital organizations, and private health clinics an interpretative framework for evaluating patient-centeredness and quality of care is offered. Discussion, implications, and …

Motives For Different Types Of Medical Travelers: An Analysis Of The Current State Of Academic Research On The Topic, Dan B. Cormany

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this research is to determine the current state of research undertaken to provide insight into the motivational characteristics of medical travelers, as reported by scholarly publications in the last five years. As a part of the study, an exploration is undertaken of the four basic schools of psychological thought, as each have different explanations for human motivation. These four schools - psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, and cognitive or pragmatic - are examined in the light of six categories of medical travelers. The categories are those traveling for life-saving surgeries, for treatments to improve quality of life, for elective …

Medical Tourism: Trends And Opportunities, Krista Wendt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Medical tourism involves travel for the purpose of receiving medical, dental, or surgical care (Medical Tourism Association), and represents a rapidly growing niche market within the healthcare, tourism, and hospitality industries. Medical travelers are motivated to seek care outside of their area of residence by many factors, including more advanced technology, quicker access, higher quality of care, or lower costs for care in the destination locality (Ehrbeck, Guevara, & Mango, 2008). Multiple factors contribute to the growth of the medical tourism industry and suggest a continuing trend toward growth in the future. This nascent industry represents a significant market opportunity …

Medical Travel Facilitator Websites: An Exploratory Study Of Web Page Contents And Services Offered To The Prospective Medical Tourist, Dan Cormany, Seyhmus Baloglu

Faculty Publications

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 …

Hospitality And Destination Marketing's Role In Medical Tourism: A Call For Research, Dan Cormany

Faculty Publications

Like business travel, where the primary focus is on business and travel is the simply the conduit by which it is performed, medical tourism is a growing trend in which individuals journey to foreign countries primarily to secure specific medical procedures or health benefits. The medical tourist is a newly defined segment of the travel industry, and while still small in numbers, is growing rapidly. This paper seeks to identify research questions related to the hospitality elements that contribute to the medical tourism experience. The answers to these may aid hoteliers, tourism operations, and visitor bureaus better understand, service and …