An Investigation of American Medical Tourists’ Posttravel Experience

Abstract

Medical tourism has gained intense momentum within the past two decades, and more Americans than ever before are seeking medical care from international alternatives. Although there has been extensive study regarding the pretravel motivations for medical tourism, there is a distinct gap of empirical research when it comes to travelers’ overall perception of their posttravel medical tourism experience. This study focuses on measuring the relationship between medical tourists’ push and pull factors on the overall perceived quality of their medical tourism experience. This study surveyed U.S. medical tourists who have sought medical care outside of the United States. The research investigated respondents’ perception of the destination location, medical tourism experience, and overall perceived quality.

摘要

过去二十年来，医疗旅游获得长足发展，寻求国际替代医疗的美国人空前增多。研究人员已经对医疗旅游的动机进行了广泛研究，但对旅客在医疗旅游之后的整体体验方面，仍存在明显的实证研究空白。本研究重点关注医疗旅客的推拉因素与医疗旅游体验的整体感知质量之间的关系。本研究对在美国以外寻求医疗护理的美国医疗游客进行了调查，以了解受访者对目的地位置、医疗旅游体验和总体感知质量的看法。

Keywords:

• Medical tourism
• perceived quality
• pull factors
• push factors