Ranking of Sustainable Medical Tourism Destinations in Iran: An Integrated Approach Using Fuzzy SWARA-PROMETHEE

Today, medical tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry around the world. Medical tourism can contribute to the sustainable development and economic dynamism of countries. Therefore, in this study, we prioritize the world’s leading countries in medical tourism for Iranians. First, five main criteria and 20 sub-criteria were selected, which are the reasons for choosing a country as a medical tourism destination. In this paper a combined fuzzy SWARA-PROMETHEE approach was used to prioritize tourism destinations. The acronym PROMETHEE stands for Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation method and represents an useful MCDA (Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis) tool. On the other hand, SWARA acronym means Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis. The criteria were weighted using the fuzzy SWARA approach. In the following, using the PROMETHEE approach, we prioritized eight countries as tourism destinations, then we identified criteria related to sustainability of medical tourism destinations and prioritized medical tourism destinations using these criteria as the contributions of this paper. The weights obtained for criteria “Abilities of skilled staff,” “Applied medical equipment,” “Marketing capability,” “Type of service provided,” and “Application of information and communications technology” were 0.176, 0.232, 0.108, 0.395, and 0.089, respectively. The results show that medical tourism destination priorities for Iranians are India (Phi = 0.1396), Malaysia (Phi = 0.1128), Panama (Phi = 0.0976), Mexico (Phi = 0.0790), Singapore (Phi = 0.0096), Taiwan (Phi = −0.0442), Brazil (Phi = −0.1747), and Costa Rica (Phi = −0.2196), respectively. Negative Phi values indicate below average performance of those countries and positive Phi values indicate above average performance of those criteria. The results indicate that countries with negative Phi values should be strengthened relative to the improvement of some criteria.

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Innovation in Medical Tourism Service Marketing

Innovations in Services Marketing and Management ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-4671-1.ch003 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 49-66 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Anita Medhekar ◽

Ho Yin Wong ◽

John Hall

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Service ◽

Medical Tourism ◽

Relevant Literature ◽

Service Marketing ◽

Marketing Mix ◽

Tourism Industry ◽

Patient Privacy ◽

Tourism Marketing ◽

Tourism Destinations ◽

Tourism Service

The aim of this chapter is to critically examine the latest development of medical tourism as an innovation in India. The existing theories and concepts in medical tourism are reviewed and synthesised in order to lay down a foundation for marketing managers to deploy marketing mix strategies to deliver values to the medical tourists. A secondary research method is adapted to gather relevant literature. This chapter not only provides a background introduction to the growing importance of the medical tourism industry to the Indian economy, but also makes major contributions: firstly, that global healthcare service marketing is quite different from marketing of other services and goods. Secondly, it proposes to examine the application of 8Ps of tourism marketing-mix along with another 6Ps, such as personalisation of healthcare, publication for patient, patient packaging, patient education, patient privacy, and patient medical and cultural sensitivities for effective marketing of the popular Indian wellness and medical tourism destinations, super-speciality hospitals, and complex diagnostic tests and surgeries to the world.

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The PROMETHEE Framework for Comparing the Sustainability of Agricultural Systems

Resources ◽

10.3390/resources7040074 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 74 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Byomkesh Talukder ◽

Keith W. Hipel

Keyword(s):

Decision Analysis ◽

Evaluation Method ◽

Sustainability Indicators ◽

Preference Ranking ◽

Analysis Tool ◽

Agricultural Systems ◽

Coastal Bangladesh ◽

Alternative Systems ◽

Different Types

The PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation) method is applied to five different types of agricultural systems in coastal Bangladesh in order to rank the alternatives from most to least suitable according to a range of sustainability indicators. More specifically, composite indicators from six sustainability categories—productivity, stability, efficiency, durability, compatibility, and equity—are used for this assessment. The case study demonstrates that PROMETHEE constitutes a flexible MCDA (Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis) tool to investigate the sustainability of agricultural systems, rank the different alternative systems, and provide valuable insights.

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Destination quality, experience involvement And memorable tourism experience: is it relevant for rural tourism?

Management & Marketing. Challenges for the Knowledge Society ◽

10.2478/mmcks-2021-0005 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 69-85

Author(s):

Kristian Suhartadi Widi Nugraha ◽

Ika Barokah Suryaningsih ◽

Ira Dwi Cahyanti

Keyword(s):

Word Of Mouth ◽

Tourism Industry ◽

Rural Tourism ◽

Tourism Destination ◽

Tourism Experience ◽

Tourism Destinations ◽

Satisfaction Theory

Abstract The development of tourism industry includes the development of rural tourism based on Edu-Tourism. The biggest challenge of this industry is the lack of interest of the tourists to return to the rural tourism or Edu-Tourism destinations. The objectives of the study are to see the influence of destination quality, experience involvement, and memorable tourism experience towards clients’ satisfaction and to establish word of mouth of the rural tourism. Questionnaire were distributed to 200 respondents as the sample of the study. The result of the study showed that destination quality significantly affected tourists’ satisfaction and word of mouth; whereas experience involvement affected memorable tourism experience and tourists’ satisfaction. Furthermore, memorable tourism experience has significant impact on tourists’ satisfaction and word of mouth; and the tourists’ satisfaction significantly influenced word of mouth. The research is unfortunately limited the concept of satisfaction theory, memorable tourism experience and word of mouth theory to the rural tourism destination only rather than other tourism destinations.

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Innovation in Medical Tourism Service Marketing

Hospitality, Travel, and Tourism ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-6543-9.ch091 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 1587-1604

Author(s):

Anita Medhekar ◽

Ho Yin Wong ◽

John Hall

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Service ◽

Medical Tourism ◽

Relevant Literature ◽

Service Marketing ◽

Marketing Mix ◽

Tourism Industry ◽

Patient Privacy ◽

Tourism Marketing ◽

Tourism Destinations ◽

Tourism Service

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Does the perception of halal tourism destination matter for non-Muslim tourists’ WOM? The moderating role of religious faith

International Journal of Tourism Cities ◽

10.1108/ijtc-12-2019-0207 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Muhammad Khalilur Rahman ◽

Md Sohel Rana ◽

Mohd Nazari Ismail ◽

Mohd Zulkifli Muhammad ◽

Muhammad Nazmul Hoque ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Significant Influence ◽

Word Of Mouth ◽

Tourism Industry ◽

Partial Least Square ◽

Capital City ◽

Research Approach ◽

Kuala Lumpur ◽

Tourism Destination ◽

Content Type ◽

Tourism Destinations

Purpose Tourists often travel to different tourism destinations in advancing the knowledge of diverse cultures, environments, history and social aspects. The purpose of this study is to explore tourists’ perception of halal tourism and its impact on word-of-mouth towards halal tourism destinations. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research approach was applied in this study. Data were collected via 375 survey questionnaires and were analysed using partial least square method. Data were collected from Malaysia’s capital city and tourist spots in Kuala Lumpur, the administrative capital city in Putrajaya, and several cities in Selangor, the richest state in the country. Findings The findings revealed that trip quality has a higher significant impact on satisfaction and trip value. The perception of a halal tourism destination is found to have a significant influence on satisfaction and trip value. Trip value is significantly related to satisfaction but not associated with word-of-mouth (WOM). Satisfaction of tourists has a significant impact on WOM towards travel destinations. Research limitations/implications This study comes up with a novel understanding of the theory of tourism practices by estimating non-Muslim tourists’ perception and its significant influence of WOM towards tourism destinations. The results of this study are significant to industry practitioners, policymakers and marketers in promoting halal tourism. The results of this study provide useful insights for Malaysia’s tourism industry, particularly for the tourism marketing in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya cities as tourist destinations. Practical implications This study comes up with a novel understanding of the theory of tourism practices by estimating non-Muslim tourists’ perception and the influence of WOM towards tourism destinations. The results of this study are significant to industry practitioners, policymakers and marketers in promoting halal tourism. Originality/value This study examined the potential impact of non-Muslim tourists’ perception of halal tourism destinations and their WOM for halal tourism destinations.

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The Effect of Islamic Attributes and Destination Affective Image on the Reputation of the Halal Tourism Destination of Jakarta

Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism ◽

10.14505//jemt.v11.2(42).08 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 299

Author(s):

Yunni Indrani WIDJAJA ◽

Gamal S. A. KHALIFA ◽

Abuelhassan Elshazly ABUELHASSAN

Keyword(s):

Structural Equation ◽

Quantitative Research ◽

Sem Analysis ◽

Tourism Industry ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Price Ratio ◽

Cultural Resources ◽

Tourism Destination ◽

Unit Of Analysis ◽

Tourism Destinations

Tourism industry recognizes the growing interest in Halal tourism from both the perspectives of practitioners and researchers. Indonesia was chosen as the world's best halal tourism destination this year according to the 2019 Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) and outperformed 130 destinations from around the world. Among the 10 most favorite halal tourism destinations, Jakarta has the most unique characteristics compared to the other nine provinces. Related to this background, this study aims to examine the effect of Islamic attributes and destination affective image on the reputation of the halal tourism destination of Jakarta. The research design outlines the use of quantitative research approaches. The unit of analysis and observation is International Muslim tourists who visited Jakarta. The Central Statistics Bureau (BPS) recorded the number of foreign visitors arriving DKI Jakarta amounted to 2,313,742 people at 2013. Hair et al. (1992) suggest the minimum sample size for SEM analysis is 100 to 200. So based on this opinion, this study will take a sample of 200, in accordance with the terms of use of SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) as analytic tools to test the hypotheses. The study was conducted in the cross-section period of 2019. The results showed that the Islamic Attributes and Destination Affective Image affect the Destination Reputation. Destination reputation is more dominantly built by destination affective image compared to Islamic attributes. This finding has implications for related stakeholders that the development of destination affective image needs to be prioritized to support Jakarta's destination reputation as one of the halal tourism destinations in Indonesia. It mainly concerns on the aspects of natural and cultural resources, security, night life and entertainment, accessibility, and quality / price ratio.

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Destination brand equity and tourist's revisit intention towards health tourism: an empirical study

Benchmarking An International Journal ◽

10.1108/bij-03-2021-0173 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Muhammad Sabbir Rahman ◽

Surajit Bag ◽

Hasliza Hassan ◽

Md Afnan Hossain ◽

Rajesh Kumar Singh

Keyword(s):

Brand Equity ◽

Medical Tourism ◽

Tourism Destination ◽

Health Tourism ◽

Content Type ◽

Brand Association ◽

Revisit Intention ◽

Tourism Destinations ◽

Destination Brand ◽

The Relationship

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the relationship between destination brand equity and tourist's revisit intention towards health tourism destinations. The study also examines the mediating effect of destination brand association between destination-based brand equity and travellers' revisit intention for health tourism destinations.Design/methodology/approachA survey instrument is used to examine the relationships in the proposed model using the co-variance-based structural equation modelling (SEM) technique. The collected primary data from two hundred forty-six respondents (n = 246) are analysed to test the relationship amongst exogenous, mediating, moderating and endogenous constructs articulated in the proposed structural model.FindingsEmpirical findings reveal that destination brand equity influences the revisit intention of a traveller for health tourism via destination brand association. The perceived trust, reliability and soft issues of a traveller moderate the relationship between destination brand equity and destination brand association. Enduring travel involvement also proves a significant moderation effect on the relationship between destination brand association and the revisit intention of a traveller for a health tourism destination.Practical implicationsThis paper is an initial attempt to develop and empirically examine a conceptual model of the intention of a traveller to revisit a health tourism destination in a dynamic process of information search using the data collected from current travellers after medical tourism-related trips. Results suggest that stakeholders must focus on hedonic and utilitarian factors of the destination that are recognised by travellers to encourage revisit for medical tourism.Originality/valueAlthough there have been numerous studies on health tourism. However, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this research is a pioneer in the healthcare tourism literature that links destination brand equity, brand association and revisit intention of a traveller for health tourism. These findings extend the knowledge of how healthcare tourism that is embedded with destination brand equity and destination brand association. The study findings potentially benefit the marketers for gaining competitive advantages through considering the experience of a traveller.

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Modelling the factors affecting Indian medical tourism sector using interpretive structural modeling

Benchmarking An International Journal ◽

10.1108/bij-03-2017-0045 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (5) ◽

pp. 1461-1479 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Vineet Jain ◽

Puneeta Ajmera

Keyword(s):

Medical Tourism ◽

Structural Modeling ◽

Healthcare Services ◽

Tourism Industry ◽

Medical Procedures ◽

Tourism Destination ◽

Interpretive Structural Modeling ◽

Content Type ◽

Indian Medical ◽

Tourism Sector

Purpose Medical tourism encourages the traveling of patients, expert healthcare professionals and promotes cross-border trade in healthcare services. The Indian medical tourism sector is facing new challenges as well as certain ethical and legal issues because of continuous market changes and patient’s requirements while at the same time advancements in current health services have also been observed. It is therefore very important to understand and address the issues of the medical tourists. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the important factors which can make India an affordable medical tourism destination. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the factors influencing Indian medical tourism sector have been explored by conducting literature review, they are ranked according to the results of a questionnaire-based survey and further analyzed by using the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach. The mutual relationships between these factors were identified to develop an ISM model so as to find out the important factors which can make India an affordable place for medical tourism. Findings The results of the survey and the model show that cost of medical procedures, facilitation, and care, the infrastructure of Indian hospitals, clinical excellence and the competence of doctors and staff are the top level factors. Practical implications It is very important to address the concerns of the patients coming to a developing country like India for availing medical services. This research has evaluated the important factors which can make India an affordable medical tourism destination. Originality/value This research assesses the effects of globalization on delivery of healthcare services in India by conducting critical analysis of the medical tourism industry by collecting original data from the international patients coming to India for different types of medical procedures so that a comprehensive model can be prepared which will help the hospitals and policymakers to improve the processes related to medical tourism.

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Strategic Management and Branding Panacea for Surviving in Volatile Environments: Case of Zimbabwe Tourism Industry

Business and Management Horizons ◽

10.5296/bmh.v3i2.8543 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 24 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Farai Chigora ◽

Promise Zvavahera

Keyword(s):

Strategic Management ◽

Tourism Industry ◽

Brand Name ◽

Tourism Destination ◽

Qualitative Approaches ◽

Strategic Model ◽

Key Stakeholders ◽

Strategic Factors ◽

Tourism Destinations

The Zimbabwe tourism destination has been rebranded three times between the years 1980 and 2011. It started with the brand name “Discover Zimbabwe” after independence in 1980, to “Africa Paradise” in 1996, then “Zimbabwe a World of Wonders” in 2011. The change was done as an effort to strategically position the country’s tourism destination through an attractive brand. The first two brands failed to change the perceptions of tourists towards Zimbabwe. This study sought to explore strategic factors that might have affected the tourism destination. The research applied both quantitative and qualitative approaches to extract data. The results showed that the majority of tourism players in Zimbabwe used the branding concept separately from strategic management. The study discovered that the failure of the tourism industry is attributed to the failure by the authorities to strategically consult key stakeholders in the formulation of the brand. The study therefore, recommended a brand-strategic model suitable for tourism destinations emphasising on combining branding and strategic management.

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Characterizing Tourism Destination and Policies Forward: The Case in Bantayan Island, Philippines

Tourism Review International ◽

10.3727/154427220x15912253254428 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 (2) ◽

pp. 143-165

Author(s):

Kafferine D. Yamagishi ◽

Ann Myril C. Tiu ◽

Reciel Ann B. Tanaid ◽

Maria Esther F. Medalla ◽

Eula Margareth Y. Jabilles ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Carrying Capacity ◽

Social Impact ◽

Energy Use ◽

Tourism Industry ◽

Waste Generation ◽

Tourism Destination ◽

Marketing Analytics ◽

Tourism Destinations

This work reports a holistic tourism destination assessment of Bantayan Island (Philippines) using an expanded tourism area life cycle (TALC) model. The expanded TALC contains five evaluation areas: destination characteristics, marketing response, economic impact, social impact, and environmental impact. Using various sources of evidence, findings suggest that Bantayan Island is positioned in the involvement stage of the TALC model. However, specific areas yield different results as the island is in the development–consolidation stage for destination characteristics, involvement–development for marketing response, involvement for economic impacts, development for social impacts, and involvement for environmental impacts. With these findings, various policy insights for destination management are offered, such as establishing carrying capacity, embracing a proactive marketing content and marketing analytics, managing resiliency of the locals and the tourism industry, integrating local culture in tourism packages, and reducing material and energy use and waste generation. These insights can be extended to other tourism destinations with similar conditions, particularly in developing countries.

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