Is price most important? Healthcare tourism in Southeast Asia

ABSTRACT

Healthcare tourism is a general term for traveling to another country to seek healthcare services. It spread from Western countries to emerging Southeast Asian nations in the past decade because of a series of factors. Price is likely considered as one of the important factors among most healthcare tourism providers and politicians. However, healthcare tourists tend to consider more before making a decision. According to some early studies, healthcare quality, package, convenience, country, price, emotional value, and social value were frequently considered factors. To examine the role of these factors, this study proposes a structural model to investigate the relationship of the perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions of three Southeast Asian countries, namely Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. A sample of size 724 is collected at the Departure Hall of the Singapore Changi International Airport within a two-month period, using a systematic random sampling method, in which every third tourist who pass the surveyor is asked to fill in the questionnaire. All of the questionnaires handed out on a given day referred to the same country, and the three different countries are rotated on different days. All factors are significant and it is found that the two most important factors are functional value of healthcare quality and emotional value. Price is a significant but the least important factor. This indicates that cheaper price may be just a promotional gimmick or an obvious incentive, but it is not the main driving force for healthcare tourists to make their decisions. The results also provide empirical support that emphasis on perceived value of healthcare tourism may also translate into trust in the staff and other positive feelings. It is further found that the impact of perceived value on behavioral intentions is mediated by satisfaction for all three countries.

摘要

保健旅游通常被认为是一项跨国寻求康养保健和医疗救助服务的旅行活动。近年来, 东南亚国家迅速发展为全球增长最快的保健旅游目的地, 是欧美国家之外最佳的保健旅游目的地选择, 每年吸引大批来自欧美、亚太等国家和地区, 尤其是中国大陆的保健旅游者。东南亚地区保健旅游的快速发展得益于一系列吸引因素, 而实惠的价格一直被各国政府和学界认为是最重要的吸引因素。然而, 在实际观察中发现, 保健旅游者在出游决策和目的地选择的过程中, 考虑的因素不仅仅是价格, 还包括保健服务的质量、包价旅游的品质、出境的便利性、目的地国家状况、情感价值和社会价值。因此, 为了检验上述各种旅游吸引因素对东南亚地区保健旅游发展的作用, 本文以新加坡、泰国和马来西亚三个东南亚国家为例, 在新加坡樟宜机场采取系统配额基础上的随机抽样方法, 收集了来自上述三国的724个有效样本, 分别研究游客对各国保健旅游的感知价值、满意度和行为意向的关系。结果表明, 所有感知价值因素对行为意向都具有显著影响。其中, 功能价值中的保健服务质量和情感价值是最重要的因素, 而实惠的价格尽管显著, 但却是最不重要的因素。这意味着经济实惠的价格可能仅仅是宣传噱头或外显诱因, 而真正有效吸引保健旅游者的还是保健服务的质量以及在情感价值体验。保健旅游目的地国家和地区应该避免陷入价格竞争, 而应该不断提高保健服务品质, 增进医务人员与保健旅游者的情感互动, 建立良好关系, 增进互信。此外, 满意度作为中介变量调节了保健旅游的感知价值和行为意向之间的关系。综合而言, 保健旅游目的地国家和地区应该致力于提高保健服务的质量, 努力提升那些不易看见的情感价值和社会价值等方面, 而不是仅仅专注于降低价格, 以最大程度的提高游客的感知价值水平, 从而促进满意度提升和出游意愿的增加。

KEYWORDS:

• Healthcare tourism
• perceived value
• behavioral intention
• satisfaction
• Southeast Asia

关键词:

• 保健旅游
• 感知价值
• 行为意向
• 满意度
• 东南亚

Acknowledgement

The authors appreciate the helpful comments made by Prof. Alan A. Lew and the anonymous referees.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 41301146].

Notes on contributors

Zeng-Xian Liang

Zeng-Xian Liang is an associate professor in the School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-Sen University. He is particularly intrigued by the interaction between urban tourism and social space reconstruction in modern China, and he is more generally interested in theme parks, urban tourism development, and quality of life (QOL). He has previously published papers on seasonal tourist flows and informal employment and tourist psychological capacity in theme parks of China, as well as tourism gentrification.

Tak-Kee Hui

Tak-Kee Hui is a retired associate professor of Business School at National University of Singapore. He is more generally interested in applied multivariate analysis, tourism management, and forecasting models, as well as healthcare tourism and QOL. He has previously published papers on wellness travelers, cross-border shoppers, tourist revisit behavior, healthcare tourism, and tourists’ satisfaction.

Pei-Zhi Sea

Pei-Zhi Sea graduated from National University of Singapore, Business School. She is interested in healthcare tourism and applied multivariate analysis.