Chinese Tourists’ Intention to Visit Malaysia as a Destination of Choice for Medical Tourism

Abstract

The demand for medical tourism in Malaysia is increasing rapidly due to more patients traveling beyond borders to seek medical treatment. Moreover, Chinese outbound medical tourism is growing sharp where patients travel beyond borders to seek medical treatment. A self-administered survey questionnaire is used in this study for data collection and a total of 320 respondents have filled out the survey. Research findings show that three underlying dimensions of travel motivations (pull factors) have been determined which are “value for money”, “supporting services”, and “cultural similarity”, which have significantly influenced the intention of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia as a destination of choice for medical tourism. In addition, the perceived quality of medical services, which comprises two dimensions namely the perceived medical service quality (core service) and perceived customer service quality (supplementary service) has also influenced the Chinese medical tourists' intention to visit Malaysia as a destination of choice for medical tourism. The main medical treatment pursued by respondents were wellness or preventive healthcare, treatment for diseases and beauty enhancement. The findings also offered an important managerial implication for the destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in obtaining deeper insight into the Chinese outbound medical tourism market.

Keywords: Medical tourism, Motivation, Malaysia, Chinese tourist