Development of a holistic internet marketing strategy framework (IMSF) in promoting medical tourism industry (MTI) in Malaysia
Previous studies found that Healthcare Information (HI) asymmetry or doctor-patient knowledge gap is identified as one of the problems causes the Malaysia’s Medical Tourism (MT) industry less efficient. This study is then seeking to promote and introduce MT in Malaysia by using Internet as one of th...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Published: |
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/8802/ http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/8802/1/WONG_LAI_YOONG.pdf |
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| Summary: | Previous studies found that Healthcare Information (HI) asymmetry or doctor-patient
knowledge gap is identified as one of the problems causes the Malaysia’s Medical
Tourism (MT) industry less efficient. This study is then seeking to promote and
introduce MT in Malaysia by using Internet as one of the marketing strategies at the
national level. Two research instruments were used in this study known as (1) Content
Analysis of 63 Medical Tourism Websites (MTwebs) and (2) Semi-structured Expert
Interview with Malaysian Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) and four Medical
Tourism Hospitals (MThops). Qualitative data for this study were analysed by using
content analysis, code frequency analysis and NVivo 10, as Computer-Aided
Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS). The outcome from this study shows
that there are 5 criteria and 21 child nodes emerged from the analytical analysis, known
as (1) Price; (2) Destination; (3) Healthcare Services; (4) Hospital Accreditation; and
(5) International Patient Tourists (IPTs) Healthcare Services. Findings also indicated
that 34 out of 63 MTwebs were commercial-based websites which revealed that the HI
provided through these MTwebs were more towards promotional ends rather than
helps to inform International Patient Tourists (IPTs) regarding potential risks inherent
(travel risk and surgical risk) while seeking cross-border MT. On top of that, the
hierarchy of the results also indicated that healthcare services, price and IPTs
healthcare services were more significant than destination and hospital accreditation
in designing the best MTwebs. Finally, a holistic Internet Marketing Strategy
Framework (IMSF) named as “4A’s Model” is proposed as a marketing benchmark
for MThops to promote their cross-border healthcare services to the IPTs across the
globe. |
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