Development of a holistic internet marketing strategy framework (IMSF) in promoting medical tourism Industry (MTI) in Malaysia
Previous studies found that Healthcare Information (HI) asymmetry or doctor-patient knowledge gap is identified as one of the problems causes the Malaysia's Medical Tourism (MT) industry less efficient. This study is then seeking to promote and introduce MT in Malaysia by using Internet as one...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English English |
| Published: |
2016
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| Online Access: | http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/9995/2/24p%20WONG%20LAI%20YOONG.pdf http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/9995/1/WONG%20LAI%20YOONG%20COPYRIGHT%20DECLARATION.pdf http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/9995/3/WONG%20LAI%20YOONG%20WATERMARK.pdf |
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| Summary: | Previous studies found that Healthcare Information (HI) asymmetry or doctor-patient knowledge gap is identified as one of the problems causes the Malaysia's Medical Tourism (MT) industry less efficient. This study is then seeking to promote and introduce MT in Malaysia by using Internet as one of the marketing strategies at the national level. Two research instruments were used in this study known as (1) Content Analysis of 63 Medical Tourism Websites (MTwebs) and (2) Semi-structured Expert Interview with Malaysian Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) and four Medical Tourism Hospitals (MThops). Qualitative data for this study were analysed by using content analysis, code frequency analysis and NVivo 10, as Computer-Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS). The outcome from this study shows that there are 5 criteria and 21 child nodes emerged from the analytical analysis, known as (1) Price; (2) Destination; (3) Healthcare Services; (4) Hospital Accreditation; and (5) International Patient Tourists (IPTs) Healthcare Services. Findings also indicated that 34 out of 63 MTwebs were commercial-based websites which revealed that the HI provided through these MTwebs were more towards promotional ends rather than helps to inform International Patient Tourists (IPTs) regarding potential risks inherent (travel risk and surgical risk) while seeking cross-border MT. On top of that, the hierarchy of the results also indicated that healthcare services, price and IPTs healthcare services were more significant than destination and hospital accreditation in designing the best MTwebs. Finally, a holistic Internet Marketing Strategy Framework (IMSF) named as "4A's Model" is proposed as a marketing benchmark for MThops to promote their cross-border healthcare services to the IPTs across the globe |
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