Abstract:
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Medical tourism is a developing market for Thailand’s tourism industry, and
offers a unique alternative to the issues associated with an excessive reliance on
traditional forms of tourism. Previous literature on this subject is limited. The primary
focus has been on the economic and social impacts of medical tourism on a host
country, and on the quality of medical services that influence medical tourists’
loyalty. There has been insufficient research conducted on developing Thailand’s
image as a medical tourism destination to establish destination loyalty. Therefore, this
study proposes to increase academic research on both developing Thailand’s
destination image to establish destination loyalty, and on medical tourism,
contributing both theoretical and practical knowledge.
The objectives of this study are: 1) to study Thailand’s image as a medical
tourism destination, 2) to examine the perceptions of medical tourists towards travel
motivation, destination image, travel constraints, destination satisfaction and
destination loyalty, 3) to analyze the factors influencing destination loyalty, 4) to
examine the causal relationships among travel motivation, destination image, travel
constraints, destination satisfaction and destination loyalty, and 5) to propose policy
recommendations for developing Thailand’s image as a medical tourism destination to
establish destination loyalty.
Qualitative and quantitative methods were employed to achieve these
objectives. The research commences with qualitative data analysis. A literature review
of previous studies and media sources related to medical tourism in Thailand, and
semi-structured in-depth interviews of medical tourism experts, were conducted to
comprehend Thailand’s image as a medical tourism destination. The qualitative data
analysis is directed towards objective 1, the study of Thailand’s image as a medical
tourism destination, and objective 5, the policy recommendations for developing
Thailand’s image as a medical tourism destination to establish destination loyalty. The
analyzed data identified important measurement items of a destination image
construct to achieve the remaining objectives. Examining these relationships
expressed in the conceptual framework was attained by using a quantitative method; a
cross-sectional survey on medical tourists in Thailand using the finalized design at the
qualitative phase was conducted. Descriptive statistics and Structural Equation
Modeling (SEM), including confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis, were used
to analyze the data.
The findings of the study revealed that medical tourists’ destination
satisfaction was affected by destination image, which was directly influenced by
travel motivation. Furthermore, destination satisfaction directly affected destination
loyalty, which was also indirectly affected by travel motivation through destination
image and destination satisfaction. The findings also verified that medical tourists’
destination loyalty was increased by the rise of travel motivation, positive perceived
destination image and higher destination satisfaction. These findings contributed
towards the policy recommendations for developing Thailand’s image as a medical
tourism destination to establish destination loyalty. This study merged the key
concepts in developing image and confirmed their significant influences on
destination loyalty
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