Medical Tourism Destination Image and its Relationship with the Intention to Revisit: A Study of Chinese Medical Tourists in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Medical tourism in Malaysia has grown over the years and has become a promising industry. However, due to the establishment of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), we see a spill-over effect where more Chinese people visit and seek medical treatments in Malaysia. Attracting these Chinese medical tourists has become a great competition as Malaysia is not the sole player in the South East Asia region. The objective of this study is to examine the factors influencing Malaysia as a medical tourism destination among Chinese medical tourists. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of 600 respondents to test the hypothesized relationships. The data were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach via AMOS and SPSS. The results show that country-specific factors (country knowledge, safety and security, accessibility, and price reasonableness) and social factors (word-of-mouth and social media) are significant predictors of the image of Malaysia as a medical tourism destination, which in turn, affect perceived value and intention to revisit. This study is one of the few that examines the perception of Chinese medical tourists, a lucrative market that contributes significantly to the global medical tourism industry. Theoretical and managerial implications of the research are discussed.

摘要

近年来，医疗旅游已在马来西亚发展壮大，同时也被视为有发展前景的一项产业。以此同时，中国“一带一路”的策略也为该国产生了溢出效应，意味着越来越多的中国旅客选择到访马来西亚征求医疗相关的治疗。由于马来西亚并非东南亚地区唯一著名医疗旅游的国家，因此吸引中国藉旅客已成为该国发展医疗旅游时一些巨大的考验。本研究的目的主要专注于检测影响中国藉旅客对于马来西亚作为医疗旅游目的地的因素。透过问卷调查，本研究使用600名受访者的数据，检测假设的关系。所有数据都采用AMOS和SPSS软体进行结构方程式分析。本研究结果显示：国家特定因素（包括国家知识，安全和保障，可及性及价格合理性）和社会因素（口碑传销和社交媒体）是影响马来西亚医疗旅游形象重要的因素。这两个变量也正面的影响认知价值和再访意愿。这份研究是关于中国藉医疗旅游尾数不多的研究之一，这绝对是一个有力可图的市场，并且对全球医疗旅游业做出了巨大的关系。本研究也针对理论及管理上进行了深入的讨论

KEYWORDS:

• Destination image
• social media
• behavioral intention
• value
• medical tourism
• belt and road initiative (BRI)

关键词:

• 目的地形象
• 社交媒体
• 行为意愿
• 价值
• 医疗旅游
• 一带一路

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tat-Huei Cham

Tat-Huei Cham is Assistant Professor and Head of Programme (PhD & MPhil) in Faculty of Accountancy and Management at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Malaysia. His research interests focus on medical tourism, marketing, tourism and hospitality marketing, advertising consumer behavior, service industry strategy and operations, and e-commerce (E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]).

Yet-Mee Lim

Yet-Mee Lim is Associate Professor in Faculty of Accountancy and Management at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Malaysia. Her research interests focus on organizational behavior, knowledge management, user acceptance of technology, e-commerce trend, service industry strategy, human resource management and higher education.

Bee-Chuan Sia

Bee-Chuan Sia is Assistant Professor in Faculty of Accountancy and Management at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Malaysia. Her research interests are in the fields of marketing, cultural consumption theories, consumer behavior, entrepreneurship and strategic management.

Jun-Hwa Cheah

Jun-Hwa Cheah (Jacky) is Senior Lecturer in Faculty of Economics and Management at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Malaysia. His main areas of interest include consumer behavior, marketing strategy, advertising, simulation studies, and methodological issue.

Hiram Ting

Hiram Ting is Associate Professor in Faculty of Hospitality & Tourism Management at UCSI University, Malaysia. His main areas of interest include consumer behavior, advertising, tourism management and behavioral studies.