Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis

• Published in: Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing
• Main Author: Abd Mutalib N.S.; Soh Y.C.; Wong T.W.; Yee S.M.; Yang Q.; Murugiah M.K.; Ming L.C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2017
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85006842042&doi=10.1080%2f10548408.2016.1250697&partnerID=40&md5=da8c5b1ce892c8e5852cf56146c2e4d0

This study explored the written online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand using qualitative content analysis. The Google search engine was used for narrative search. Multiple search terms including medical, health, wellness tourism; treatment abroad; medical or health travel; treatment, surgery, or plastic surgery; dental treatment or braces were used to obtain related blog posts, discussions, and forums via a purposeful sampling method. A total of 43 online narratives were included in this study. Themes were then created after an iterative analysis of the selected online comments or posts. The push factors that act as motivators were: cost (100%), attractions (81%), availability of facilitators (62%), physician’s background and expertise (58%), bandwagon effect (42%). The majority of the subjects (88%) stated that they were satisfied with the outcomes of their medical treatments received in Malaysia and Thailand. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.