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

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;...

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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
id 2-s2.0-85006842042
spelling 2-s2.0-85006842042
Abd Mutalib N.S.; Soh Y.C.; Wong T.W.; Yee S.M.; Yang Q.; Murugiah M.K.; Ming L.C.
Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis
2017
Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing
34
6
10.1080/10548408.2016.1250697
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.
Routledge
10548408
English
Article

author Abd Mutalib N.S.; Soh Y.C.; Wong T.W.; Yee S.M.; Yang Q.; Murugiah M.K.; Ming L.C.
spellingShingle Abd Mutalib N.S.; Soh Y.C.; Wong T.W.; Yee S.M.; Yang Q.; Murugiah M.K.; Ming L.C.
Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis
author_facet Abd Mutalib N.S.; Soh Y.C.; Wong T.W.; Yee S.M.; Yang Q.; Murugiah M.K.; Ming L.C.
author_sort Abd Mutalib N.S.; Soh Y.C.; Wong T.W.; Yee S.M.; Yang Q.; Murugiah M.K.; Ming L.C.
title Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis
title_short Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis
title_full Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis
title_fullStr Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis
title_full_unstemmed Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis
title_sort Online narratives about medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand: a qualitative content analysis
publishDate 2017
container_title Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing
container_volume 34
container_issue 6
doi_str_mv 10.1080/10548408.2016.1250697
url https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85006842042&doi=10.1080%2f10548408.2016.1250697&partnerID=40&md5=da8c5b1ce892c8e5852cf56146c2e4d0
description 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.
publisher Routledge
issn 10548408
language English
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