Medical Tourists’ Future Destination Choice

Abstract

Medical tourism has become an important sector that contributed to country’s development economically.  In line with this notion, this study proposed to explore how the image of a destination could influence medical tourists in choosing a destination as their future medical and tourism destination choice.  Scholars argued that destination image had a significant relationship with behavioral intentions.  Further, destination image influence not only the decision-making process but also conditions after-decision-making behaviors of tourists.  In this study context, the future destination choice behavior referred to the intention to revisit and to spread the positive word-of-mouth.  Inbound medical tourists from private hospitals in Malaysia will be approached quantitatively by survey questionnaires.  This study will contribute to an understanding of the significant factors influencing medical tourists’ intention for future destination choice. Keywords: destination image; destination choice; revisit intention; word-of-mouth.eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i13.149