The Growth of Medical Tourism

2015 ◽  
pp. 365-378
Author(s):  
Jerry Eades
Keyword(s):  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Travel Agents ◽  
Massive Growth ◽  
Wellness Tourism ◽  
The Developed Countries

In the late 2000s, the author wrote a summary paper on the rise of medical tourism. That paper discussed the rapid growth of interest in medical, health and wellness tourism, especially since 2003. The medical tourism industry has a long history, but this massive growth is a new phenomenon. The important factors are: the changing distribution of medical services and technologies; the growth of interest among both local medical practitioners and travel agents; the packaging of tourism and medical services as a single product; and, most significantly, the availability of the Internet to disseminate information them, creating a global market. The present chapter considers first the burgeoning literature on medical tourism. Second, the processes of development in countries becoming the main players in the international provision of medical services are discussed. Third, the chapter looks at the debates surrounding the rise of medical tourism in the developed countries.

Sun, Surgery and Cyberspace

2010 ◽  
pp. 217-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry. S. Eades
Keyword(s):  
Hot Springs ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Travel Agents ◽  
Wellness Tourism ◽  
The Media ◽  
Different Parts

In the last few years, increasing attention has been paid by the media and the tourist industry to what has become known as ‘medical tourism’ sometimes also called ‘health’ or ‘wellness’ tourism. Before around 2000, these were hardly mentioned by the media at all. However, in one sense, medical tourism has a long history, as some of the information sites on the Internet are eager to point out. People have been travelling in search of medical treatment for millennia, whether in order to visit hot springs as in Poland, Hungary or Japan. Why this sudden interest? In this Chapter I argue that it is due to a combination of factors: the changing distribution of medical services and technologies, the growth of interest among both local medical practitioners in different parts of the world and travel agents, the clever packaging of tourism and medical services as a single product, and the availability of the Internet both to assemble and to disseminate information on these new products. The chapter covers the implications of these cases for the future of medical tourism, and its relations both with the medical and tourism industries.

From Township Tourism, Semigration, and Second-Home Tourism

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Unathi Sonwabile Henama
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
International Travel ◽  
Second Home ◽  
Global Tourism ◽  
The Developed Countries ◽  
Township Tourism ◽  
Developed World

Tourism is disproportionally important for African economies, considering that Africa receives less than 10% of the global tourism receipts. The majority of international travel occurs between the developed world, which means that the positive economic impacts of tourism are shared amongst the developed countries. Tourism has become the number one foreign exchange earner for many countries in Africa, diversifying the economy from either agriculture or mining. Tourism is developed with the intention that it will improve the quality-of-life and standard of living of the local community. The tourism industry has shown sustained growth, and it is regarded as a panacea for the plethora of challenges facing many countries. The structural challenges that face the economy in South Africa require an economic sector that can create immediate employment and catalyse the economy.

Globalization and its Challenges for Teacher Education in Nigeria

2014 ◽  
pp. 229-236
Author(s):  
A. O. K. Noah ◽  
Adesoji A. Oni ◽  
Simeon A. Dosunmu
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Global Market ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
The Developed Countries

The phenomenon of globalization is defined variously, but in general, it is defined as the establishment of a global market for goods and capital, leading to what could be described as a multiplicity of linkages and interconnections between places, events, ideas, issues, and things, irrespective of whether they are directly related or not. Globalization on the other hand cannot be a reality in any nation if its educational system is not implicitly or explicitly geared towards achieving meaningful and desirable change for that society. However, since education and indeed the (educator) teacher constitute the most viable instruments by which an emerging nation can catch up with the developed countries, globalization will therefore be a mirage if teacher education is not geared towards producing teachers who are globalization friendly, teachers who are not allergic to globalization. In view of the above, this chapter examines the concept of globalization side by side with the current goals of teacher education in Nigeria.

Medical Tourism

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-42
Author(s):  
Oğuz Doğan
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Market Shares ◽  
Global Demand ◽  
The World ◽  
High Level ◽  
Demand For Health

The number of travels around the world to benefit from health services provided abroad is increasing every year. The high level of global demand for health services has influenced the rapid development of the medical tourism industry. Due to these developments in the industry, a global market has emerged, the medical tourism market. Countries operating in the industry are also striving to gain share from this large market or to increase their existing market shares. In this study, different perspective on global phenomenon, medical tourism, medical tourism market, and leader destinations in the industry are examined in detail.

scholarly journals Tourism industry in the new Europe: trends, policies and challenges

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 493-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria-Irina Ana
Keyword(s):  
Developed Countries ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Member States ◽  
New Member States ◽  
Travel And Tourism ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Developed Countries

Abstract This paper provides an examination of tourism in the New Member States of the European Union from the date of accession until the last year for which data is available (2014), assessing not only the importance of tourism for the New Member States economy, but also the factors and trends that might affect this industry. Predictions for tourism after joining the EU had been confident and the statistical findings confirmed that the outcomes had been to a great extent encouraging and favourable. Considerable research has been devoted to tourism in the developed countries from Europe, the so-called Old Member States, but rather less attention has been paid to tourism in the Central Eastern Europe, the New Member States region. In this regard, the paper will start with an overview of the current state of the literature on this topic, section that precedes a presentation of European bodies and policies in the travel and tourism field. According to The World Bank Database (World Tourism Organization, 2016), the number of international inbound tourists in the countries Newest Members of EU increased on average three times and in many cases this is partly a consequence of the Community’s accession policy and the market oriented policies in the new Member States (Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General of the European Commission, 2007). Time series will be analysed in order to identify specific trends in the tourism industry, but also in an attempt to characterize the European integration impact on the New Member States’ tourism. Main future challenges and opportunities in the travel and tourism industry will also be sketched, so the paper to better serve not only participants in the academic community and practitioners in the tourism business, but also financial market parties or consultants.

scholarly journals Utilization Status and Satisfaction with Medical Services in Nonresidential Foreign Medical Tourists Visiting a Korean Medicine Hospital

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaekwon Shin ◽  
Yoon Jae Lee ◽  
Joon-Shik Shin ◽  
Jinho Lee ◽  
Haneul Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Use ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Korean Medicine ◽  
Patient Travel ◽  
Phone Calls ◽  
High Satisfaction ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
International Standing

Medical tourism refers to international patient travel with the intent of receiving medical care. Recently, South Korea, armed with a dual medical system of conventional and traditional Korean medicine, has been gaining international standing in this industry. This study examined the characteristics, medical service use, and satisfaction of foreign patients who visited a spine-specialty Korean medicine hospital as musculoskeletal disorders are the highest frequency category of medical conditions treated using Korean medicine. The electronic medical records of 1,733 foreign patients who had first visited an integrative Korean medicine hospital in 2012–2015 were analyzed, and a satisfaction survey was conducted by e-mail along with phone calls and interviews. Female patients in their 40s with low back or neck pain comprised the most prevalent patient group. The most frequently used visiting channels were agencies, followed by recommendation by friends or family. Patients received an average of 5.25 sessions, and, based on analysis of 134 survey results, the highest satisfaction rates were associated with acupuncture and pharmacopuncture of provided treatments, high physician expertise, and reliability among medical services and coordinating and translating services among nonmedical factors. Overall, 90.2% replied that they were satisfied and 76.9% that their perception of Korean medicine had improved following treatment. Nonresidential foreigners who received integrative medicine treatment expressed high satisfaction, but visiting and promotion channels were shown to be limited, which connotes both the potential of Korean medicine in propelling Korea forward in the global medical tourism industry and the need for more systematic promotion of Korean medicine medical tourism.

scholarly journals Update: Primary immunodeficiency disorders among north Indian children

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-472
Author(s):  
Rakesh Kumar Deepak ◽  
Prabin Kumar ◽  
Abhinav Saurabh ◽  
Narendra Bagri ◽  
Sonia Verma
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Primary Immunodeficiency ◽  
Tertiary Care ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
North India ◽  
Indian Children ◽  
Primary Immunodeficiency Disorders ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Developed Countries

Primary immunodeficiency disorders (PIDs) are a group of genetic abnormalities characterized by defectin one or more constituents of the immune system.This group of disorders are largely undiagnosed and unreported worldwide due to lack of awareness among the medical practitioners,parents as well as lack of state of art diagnostic facilities. Earlier we had reported the distribution pattern of various categories of PID in children of north India; in this report we are appending the data with current findings.In this retrospective study we pooled data from PIDs workup of 706 children with suspected PIDs, below the age of 18Yrs, in the period of May 2017 October 2019. The clinical assessment and presentation of these children was suggestive of PID. The peripheral blood of these children was used for flow cytometry based immunophenotyping of immune cells. PIDs were classified according to the International Union of Immunological Societies’ (IUIS) criteria.A total of 133 (18.38%) children were diagnosed with one or other form of PID with overall median age was 3.25 years (male: 2.3 and female: 4.2Yrs). Chronic infection, persistent diarrhea and retarded growth were the common warning signsin these patients. Combined humoral and cellular immunodeficiency was observed in 32%, phagocytic defect in 23%, antibody defect in 17%, dysregulated innate immunity in 19% and other well defined syndromes in 9% of total diagnosed PID children. Around 15.78% of PID cases were seen in coupleswithconsanguineous marriage, past family history of PID in 20.30% and families with sibling death of unknown cause in 24.06%. The cause of death of the sibling was not known. PID diagnosed children received prophylactic antibiotics and/or antifungals in addition tospecific therapy for the underlying immune deficiency.The field of PID remainsunexplored worldwide. The awareness in the developed countries is more than that of developing countries like India. The developing countries face several challenges in the diagnosis of PIDs such as awareness among patients and medical practitioners, mostly in the rural settings, lack of sufficient number of tertiary care centres, lack of equipped immunological laboratory to diagnose the disease.

scholarly journals Kerala: Health Tourism Hub for Ayurveda

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 222-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr Padmasani ◽  
V. Remya
Keyword(s):  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Destination Image ◽  
Health Tourism ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
Ayurvedic Treatment ◽  
One Way Anova

Health/Medical tourism is a booming niche tourism market in the tourism industry. The main reason for the increasing trend is the high cost of treatment, long waiting time, less insurance coverage in developed countries and the attitude of people to spend holidays in a quality manner with the aim of improving health. In India, Kerala is emerging as a prime health tourism hub for its Ayurveda packages. The state attracts millions of foreign and domestic tourists to visit the state’s incredible heritage and experience the traditional nature based treatment therapies. The volume of tourist arrivals in Kerala had experienced a stupendous growth of 7.7 per cent in 2014 from 4.3 per cent in 2001 (Annual report of Tourism Statistics, Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala). This study aims to profile the tourists visiting Kerala for Ayurvedic treatment and to identify the destination image factors making Kerala an attractive place for Ayurveda health tourism. For this purpose, 150 domestic tourists availing Ayurvedic treatment in Kerala were selected on the convenience of the researcher. In order to analyse the objectives, the Descriptive Statistics, Factor Analysis and One-way ANOVA were employed and the results revealed that service quality, attraction, opportunity, benefits and promotion were the destination image factors making Kerala an attractive place for Ayurvedic Health Tourism. The present study identifies the strength of Kerala for Ayurveda health tourism which helps the destination managers and the service providers witha better understanding of the market for elevating Kerala and its Ayurveda in this niche market.Int. J. Soc. Sci. Manage. Vol-2, issue-3: 222-227 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ijssm.v2i3.12755 

scholarly journals Sexual Harassment in Healthcare SMEs: Behaviours of medical practitioners and medical tourists

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Nuraisyah Chua Abdullah ◽  
Herwina Rosnan ◽  
Norzayana Yusof
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
International Publishing ◽  
Open Access Article

Healthcare SMEs are at risk of sexual harassment in the workplace due to several barriers resulting in medical professionals leaving the workforce and reduced productivity. The paper attempts to bridge the gap between the existing findings in general healthcare with medical tourism settings focusing on the medical tourists' behaviour in the destination country and the behaviour of medical practitioners in healthcare SMEs, who may be exposed to sexual harassment at workplace. Thus, this study urge for corrective actions in the medical tourism industry in ensuring the safety of medical tourists and practitioners in the rising demand for medical tourism.eISSN: 2398-4287© 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bsby e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v3i8.1390

scholarly journals A Study on Customer Perception of Medical Tourism in Puducherry

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-75
Author(s):  
C Shanthi Marie ◽  
Sampad Kumar Swain
Keyword(s):  
Medical Tourism ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Customer Perception ◽  
Private Healthcare ◽  
The World ◽  
The Developed Countries ◽  
Union Territory

Medical tourism is the latest trend happening in many countries of the world where tourists in need of medical treatments from the developed countries approach the developing countries imparting treatments at par with the quality of their home countries.  Among the countries practicing medical tourism, India is occupying one of the top positions with respect to the quality treatments as most of the states have recognized its significance.  This study aims at studying the customer perception of medical tourism in the union territory of Puducherry.  The units of the study are the international medical tourists who sought medical treatments in the private healthcare hospitals of Puducherry. The methodology used for the study is descriptive, analytical and inferential. Factor Analysis, T-test and ANOVA are the tools utilized for analyzing the primary data. The study reveals that the facilities provided to foreign patients are customer oriented. The satisfaction level of patients regarding the staff interaction, facilities and amenities and treatment are high. But, there is some need of improvement in the case of formalities and tourism part.  The efficiency of the doctors, their personal touch, their communication skills, the facilities and amenities of the hospitals contributes to the cutting edge experience by the medical tourists. One important drawback is the lack of international accreditation which needs utmost ground work. The study finally suggests strategies for motivating the medical tourists undertaking healthcare treatments in Puducherry. 

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