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In-Depth Information
A conceptual perspective
A.A. Suki, L. Putit, J.M. Yusof & N.R.M. Khan
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia
ABSTRACT: Over the recent years, medical tourism has become one of the niche sectors that sig-
nificantly contributed towards a country's economic development. The purpose of this paper is two-fold:
firstly, it aims to assess medical tourists' attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control in
affecting their intention towards adopting destination choice behavior. Secondly, it further attempts to
determine potential significant linkages among the tourists' perceived destination image, perceived value
and perceived behavioral control. Data collection procedures would involve initial focus group interview
followed by survey questionnaire design and its subsequent distribution to 600 potential target respond-
ents. The unit of analyses would be tapped on medical tourists visiting a progressively developing nation
for the purpose of seeking medical services. Data would be analyzed for its reliability and validity prior
subsequent testing of relationships using structural equation modelling statistical approach. Expected
contributions of this study include an extended knowledge building on a new conceptual research frame-
work of destination choice behavioral adoption within the medical tourism sector. It extends the applica-
tion of theory of planned behavior by exploring its relationship with destination image and perceived
value towards the provision of medical services. Subsequently, it is expected that there exists a potentially
increased level of awareness amongst medical tourists' towards these services, and that more foreign medi-
cal tourists would identify Malaysia as a medical destination choice of theirs.
Keywords
: Destination choice behavior, theory of planned behavior, perceived behavioral control, per-
ceived value, destination image
1 INTRODUCTION
top ten popular medical tourism destination with
Prince Court Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur has
been qualified as number one 2013 world's best
hospital for medical tourism by Medical Travel
Quality Alliance (MTQUA).
On predicting the probability of behavior, The-
ory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as proposed by
(Ajzen, 1991) has been applied extensively over
the past years. It suggests three influencing factors
that determine individuals' behavioral intention,
and that include attitude, subjective norm and
perceived behavioral control. In this study, these
socio-psychological factors can be used to predict
the probability of a consumer's choice behavioral
intention.
Drawing from literature, this paper develops a
conceptual model assessing medical tourists' inten-
tion to adopt Malaysia as destination choice in
medical tourism. Specifically, the proposed model
aims to: (1) assess the robustness of TPB with
attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavio-
ral control in affecting medical tourists' intention
towards adopting a Medical Tourism destination
choice behavior, and (2) to determine linkages
Tourism has become one of the major industries
that could contribute to a country's development.
Medical tourism is one of these promising indus-
tries because it has significant economic potential,
involves trade in services and represents the union
of at least two divisions: medicine and tourism
(Bookman & Bookman, 2007).
Several past researches have been addressed
in medical tourism and hospitality sectors. Joti-
kasthira (2010), for example, analyzes the factors
that determine the motivation and behavior of
potential medical tourists in choosing a destina-
tion, with particular emphasis on the role played
by destination image. The study reveals that the
image of a destination with regard to hygiene and
its image with regard to safety are also important
in choosing a medical-tourism destination.
The setting of the research is Malaysia since the
country has gained worldwide attention and posi-
tive destination image (Mohamad, Abdullah &
Mokhlis, 2012). According to Medical Tourism
Association 2010 Survey, Malaysia is amongst the
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