Çٽɾî |
Medical tourism,
Healthcare,
Attitudes,
Desires,
Behavioral intention |
ÃÊ·Ï |
Despite the international healthcare industry's rapid growth, little research exists about medical hotels. To fill this
gap, this study identifies international patients' possible outcomes of staying in a medical hotel and investigates
their intention formation by considering attitudes and desires as well as the perceived outcome's moderating impact.
A qualitative approach identifies the possible outcomes of staying in a medical hotel, which can be distinctive
from common medical/healthcare clinics, as perceived by international medical customers. Confirmatory factor
analysis verifies a four-factor structure of the perceived outcome model (financial saving, convenience, medical
service, and hospitality product). Structural equation modeling reveals that attitudes, desires, and intention significantly
associate, and desires act as a mediator. Additionally, a metric invariance test shows that convenience,
medical-service, and hospitality-product factors of the perceived outcomes significantly moderate forming intentions.
Study results help medical hotel operators create effective strategies to attract more international tourists. |