The role of information sources and image on the intention to visit a medical tourism destination: a cross-cultural analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper intends to analyze: 1) how information sources, eWOM, and image influence the intention to visit a medical tourism destination;2) the moderating role of culture and 3) cross-cultural differences based on Hofstede’s individualism and uncertainty avoidance. A total of 534 responses were collected using a panel of internet users from six different countries and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and a series of t-tests. The results show that information sources influence cognitive impressions and in conjunction with overall image and medical cognitive image influence the intention to visit a medical tourism destination. Furthermore, individualism and uncertainty avoidance have a moderating effect among these variables and cross-cultural differences exist in the degree of importance given to information sources, eWOM, image perceptions, and intention.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical tourism
• health care
• information sources
• eWOM
• destination image
• intention to visit
• Hofstede’s dimensions
• uncertainty avoidance
• individualism
• cross-cultural

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted with the financial support received from the Spanish National Research Programme (R+D+i Research Project ECO2017-88458-R), Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Research Project ECO2012-39576) and the Andalusian Regional Government (Research Project SEJ-1980).