Consumers’ Attitudes Toward Medical Tourism

This paper identified demographic groups who are likely to participate in medical tourism and further identified three components (economic, treatment-related, travel-related) that explain their motivation to travel for treatment. We hypothesized that differences in consumer characteristics and their motivating factors would influence the consumer's attitudes toward medical tourism. We found that insurance, income, and age influence consumers' economic motivation to use medical tourism, as reflected in their attitudes toward economic incentives such as copayments and cash bonuses. Location and education influenced the travel-related motivation, as reflected in consumers' attitudes toward political stability, legal systems, infrastructure, and vacationing. The treatment-related motivation, as measured by attitudes toward quality of care, post-operative care, confidentiality, and hospital reputation, depended on a consumer's health status. This study can help medical tourism agents to refine their marketing strategies and the employers and insurance companies to better design appropriate economic incentives to encourage participation in medical tourism