A Conceptual Model of Medical Tourism: Implications for Future Research

ABSTRACT

An extensive review of the current literature reveals that no integrated theoretical framework for the holistic study of the medical tourism industry exists. This study, therefore, aims to fill this gap by proposing an integrated model for the investigation of this burgeoning tourism field. It is developed with a view to capturing the current situation of medical tourism in a given country or region from the supply and demand perspectives. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques are suggested as systematic tools to test and validate the model. This study not only has implications for future research, but also provides useful information for practitioners in the medical tourism industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical tourism
• supply model
• demand model
• empirical testing

This study was supported by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University under research grant number G-YX1G