Medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of Chinese medical tourists in Malaysia

Medical tourism in Malaysia has grown over the years and has become a promising industry. However, due to the establishment of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), we see a spill-over effect where more Chinese people visit and seek medical treatments in Malaysia. Attracting these Chinese medical...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cham, Tat-Huei, Lim, Yet-Mee, Sia, Bee-Chuan, Cheah, Jun Hwa, Ting, Hiram
Format: Article
Published: Routledge 2020
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/94137/
_version_ 1848861916949118976
author Cham, Tat-Huei
Lim, Yet-Mee
Sia, Bee-Chuan
Cheah, Jun Hwa
Ting, Hiram
author_facet Cham, Tat-Huei
Lim, Yet-Mee
Sia, Bee-Chuan
Cheah, Jun Hwa
Ting, Hiram
author_sort Cham, Tat-Huei
building UPM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Medical tourism in Malaysia has grown over the years and has become a promising industry. However, due to the establishment of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), we see a spill-over effect where more Chinese people visit and seek medical treatments in Malaysia. Attracting these Chinese medical tourists has become a great competition as Malaysia is not the sole player in the South East Asia region. The objective of this study is to examine the factors influencing Malaysia as a medical tourism destination among Chinese medical tourists. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of 600 respondents to test the hypothesized relationships. The data were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach via AMOS and SPSS. The results show that country-specific factors (country knowledge, safety and security, accessibility, and price reasonableness) and social factors (word-of-mouth and social media) are significant predictors of the image of Malaysia as a medical tourism destination, which in turn, affect perceived value and intention to revisit. This study is one of the few that examines the perception of Chinese medical tourists, a lucrative market that contributes significantly to the global medical tourism industry. Theoretical and managerial implications of the research are discussed.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T13:08:44Z
format Article
id upm-94137
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-15T13:08:44Z
publishDate 2020
publisher Routledge
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling upm-941372023-05-18T08:21:42Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/94137/ Medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of Chinese medical tourists in Malaysia Cham, Tat-Huei Lim, Yet-Mee Sia, Bee-Chuan Cheah, Jun Hwa Ting, Hiram Medical tourism in Malaysia has grown over the years and has become a promising industry. However, due to the establishment of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), we see a spill-over effect where more Chinese people visit and seek medical treatments in Malaysia. Attracting these Chinese medical tourists has become a great competition as Malaysia is not the sole player in the South East Asia region. The objective of this study is to examine the factors influencing Malaysia as a medical tourism destination among Chinese medical tourists. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of 600 respondents to test the hypothesized relationships. The data were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach via AMOS and SPSS. The results show that country-specific factors (country knowledge, safety and security, accessibility, and price reasonableness) and social factors (word-of-mouth and social media) are significant predictors of the image of Malaysia as a medical tourism destination, which in turn, affect perceived value and intention to revisit. This study is one of the few that examines the perception of Chinese medical tourists, a lucrative market that contributes significantly to the global medical tourism industry. Theoretical and managerial implications of the research are discussed. Routledge 2020-03-15 Article PeerReviewed Cham, Tat-Huei and Lim, Yet-Mee and Sia, Bee-Chuan and Cheah, Jun Hwa and Ting, Hiram (2020) Medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of Chinese medical tourists in Malaysia. Journal of China Tourism Research, 17 (2). 163 - 191. ISSN 1938-8160; ESSN: 1938-8179 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19388160.2020.1734514 10.1080/19388160.2020.1734514
spellingShingle Cham, Tat-Huei
Lim, Yet-Mee
Sia, Bee-Chuan
Cheah, Jun Hwa
Ting, Hiram
Medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of Chinese medical tourists in Malaysia
title Medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of Chinese medical tourists in Malaysia
title_full Medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of Chinese medical tourists in Malaysia
title_fullStr Medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of Chinese medical tourists in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of Chinese medical tourists in Malaysia
title_short Medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of Chinese medical tourists in Malaysia
title_sort medical tourism destination image and its relationship with the intention to revisit: a study of chinese medical tourists in malaysia
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/94137/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/94137/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/94137/