The role of perceived benefits in a medical hotel from international travelers’ perspective

DOI: 10.5176/2251-3426_THoR1215

Authors: Heesup Han, Kisang Ryu, Younghyun Cho and Myoungsun Suh

Abstract: The objectives of this study are 1) to identify the distinct benefits that international travelers possibly perceive in a medical hotel, which are not likely to be available in regular medical clinics, 2) to explore the underlying factors of the identified benefits and validate the identified latent dimensions involving measurement items for them through both qualitative and quantitative approaches, 3) to examine the associations among the identified benefit factors, perceived values, and behavioral intentions (visit and word-of-mouth intentions) by developing a model including these variables, 4) to investigate the mediating role of the perceived value in the proposed conceptual framework, and 5) to compare three different models involving three different groups, namely Korean, Chinese, and Japanese international travelers ‘groups. A qualitative approach will be employed to identify international patient-travelers’ perceived benefits in a medical hotel. A Web-based survey will be utilized. A quantitative approach will be used to validate the identified perceived benefits through the qualitative approach. The proposed relationships will be tested using the structural equation modeling.
Keywords: medical hotel, perceived benefits, international travelers