Medical tourists` motivation in destination selection : an empirical investigation in Malaysia

Abstract

Tourism, combined with the phrase medical, seems to be a new form of tourism which has gained enormous popularity in recent decades. Though, a number of literatures available with regard to the travel motivation of tourists or the competitiveness of the destination, however, the major aspects that motivate the medical tourists towards selecting a particular destination are hardly focused specifically on Malaysia. Thus, there is a lack of empirical evidence in this area of study that needs to be bridged. Furthermore, there is no conclusive model for medical tourists’ motivation yet exists in the current literature. There is also a lack of evidence on how to measure medical tourist’s motivation towards selecting the destination. Realizing the need to examine closely the motivation of medical tourists, this study aimed to present the theoretical framework and empirical evidences on medical tourist’s motivation in selecting their medical tourism destination. This study has aimed at exploring the factors that motivate medical tourists and whether these factors influenced their decision-making process to select Malaysia as a destination of choice and to understand the relationship between these factors and medical tourists’ motivation towards selecting Malaysia as their preferred medical tourism destination. Structural Equation modelling (SEM) has been used for data analysis and testing the hypotheses. The targeted population for this study consisted of the medical tourists coming to Malaysia with the primary intension of seeking medical procedures other than sightseeing. A total sample size of 281 was collected through non-probability judgment sampling during the period between March 2013 and November 2013. The results indicated that cost, quality and destination image is very important factors that motivate medical tourists in selecting Malaysia as their preferred medical tourism destination. In addition, the findings also confirm that, these three constructs have positive significant influence on medical tourists’ motivation towards Malaysia as a medical tourism destination. While, the other construct “accessibility and availability of various types of treatment” did not show the statistical significance in the context of Malaysia. This study significantly contributes to the methodological, theoretical, empirical and practical development in the tourism industry by offering the structured relationship among various aspects contributing towards the development of medical tourism in Malaysia. Methodologically, this study has provided a valid and reliable instrument through which medical tourist’s motivation in selecting their destination can be measured. Empirically, this study has evaluated medical tourists’ motivation towards their destination selection by investigating the relationship between medical tourists’ motivation and destination selection. This was achieved through empirical testing of the structural relationships among tourists’ motivational factors towards their destination selection. This systematic examination of structural relationships among the constructs has facilitated a clearer understanding of the nature of the motivational factors towards the desired destination. Theoretically, this study has contributed to the development of the medical tourists’ motivation theory. Finally, from the practical stand point, its resulting indicators will help both the academics and the people involved in the hospitality and medical tourism industry to understand how medical tourists are motivated towards the medical tourism aspects of Malaysia. The findings of this study support the proposed model and hypotheses. This has also answered the research questions and achieves the research objectives. Finally, as Malaysia is still in dire need of developing a competitive edge in medical tourism before they can emerge as a key player in the medical tourism business, this study suggest that comparison studies should be conducted with their regional competitors (e.g. Singapore, Thailand, India) to identify the shortfalls and solutions to overcome those