Guidelines for developing employee engagement to enhance innovative organization in Thai hotel business

Abstract

This study was to create a pattern of website development that affects the trust in the decision for medical tourists in Thailand because nowadays the competition of medical tourism is increasingly higher in several countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia and India, where tourism is mainly promoted by website that is used as a source of information for the decision of visiting to medical tourism. Particularly, the interface factors on a website are important and affect the decision. Although currently there are many studies on developing a website promote medical tourism, the literature review found only few studies on website interface, especially there are no studies on this topic and on the process of developing a website and building the trust of decision in Thailand. Current study was therefore aimed at creating a pattern of website development that affects the trust in the decision for medical tourists in Thailand by focusing on the trust of the interface. The research questions included: 1) What are the Internet usage behaviors of foreign medical tourists in Thailand? 2) What are the factors that affect the trust of using a website for medical tourists in Thailand? 1) Are interface elements on medical tourism website consistent with empirical data? 2) What is the priority of interface factors that affect the trust of using a website for medical tourists in Thailand? 3) How should a pattern of website development that affects the trust in the decision for medical tourists in Thailand be? 1) What is the current pattern of medical tourism website? and 2) How should a pattern of website development that affects the trust in the decision for medical tourists in Thailand be? The research methodology used in this study was mixed methods that consist of quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research was conducted to investigate the Internet usage behaviors of foreign medical tourists in Thailand and the interface factors that affect the trust of using a website for medical tourists in Thailand, which were divided into three parts. First, the interface elements of medical tourism consistent with empirical data for 400 tourists were analyzed by convenience sampling and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Second, the priority of interface elements that affect the trust of using a website for medical tourists in Thailand was determined by twenty experts, purposive sampling and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Finally, fifty-three current websites for medical tourists in Thailand were evaluated and analyzed by descriptive statistics. Qualitative research was conducted to examine a pattern of website development that affects the trust in the decision for medical tourists in Thailand. The results of this study indicated that there were five factors that affect the trust of using a website for medical tourists in Thailand, i.e. information reliability, usability, interface design, information content, and social media, and that the most important factor was information reliability, followed by social media, interface design, and usability, respectively. The process of developing a website that affects the trust in the decision for medical tourists in Thailand consisted of six steps, i.e. website requirements and analysis, trustworthiness analysis, specification of requirements, site structure and design, website construction, and implementation.