The creation of a medical tourist destination: Exploring determinants of perception

Demand for improved healthcare has grown at a fast pace in recent years. This study aims at exploring the perception of medical tourists when choosing the medical tourist destination. The proposed conceptual model incorporates constructs that affect the perception of medical tourists and also established the relationship between satisfaction, motivational factors, and advocacy of medical tourist destinations. The study incorporates attributes of the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and is based on a field survey of international patients (n = 311) from two private hospitals of NCR (National Capital Region) of India. Analysis was conducted using structured equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis. Findings of the study confirm that the proposed model helps to assess the formation of a medical tourist destination and its mediating mechanism in the context of tourism services. All factors are found to be fully moderated by the attitude of residents, except nation brand authenticity and cost of medical treatment. In the light of insights drawn in the present work, destination marketing managers, government policymakers and health care service providers should pay significant attention to develop services radically and to promote policies for international medical tourists.