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Traveling for Medical Tourism - The Diaspora' s Motivation

Type of paper: Research Article

Author

Florența Larisa Vasile (Ile)

Affiliation: Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania

Email: larisa.ile@gmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9735-0282

Published:June 15, 2017
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How to Cite

Vasile (Ile), F. L. (2017). Traveling for Medical Tourism - The Diaspora' s Motivation. CACTUS - Journal of Tourism Business, Management and Economics, 15 (1).

Based on the official APA guide. Review the full set of examples.

© 2017 The Author(s);

Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

Abstract

Medical tourism, considered the newest phenomena but, as well, an old activity of travelling on health purposes, is increasingly more often the subject of articles, seminars or conferences. Considering the factors that determine the motivation for medical tourism (investments in the health system infrastructure, the international certification and accreditation for medical services and suppliers, lower costs or better quality of medical procedures, political and social stability, excellent tourism infrastructure, good reputation regarding clinical excellence, implementation of the newest medical technologies, highly educated medical personnel, the insurance policies portability) and taking into account the conclusions of previous exploratory researches in health behavior, one of the possible segments of medical tourists is Diaspora. This paper highlights the decision process and preferences of tourists from Diasporas related to medical tourism in Romania. It uses data from a pilot survey that emphasis the medical travel motivations of Romanian patients resident in EU, Canada and USA. The first determinant is the cost, but there are several other motivations driving the decision to choose Romania as a medical tourism destination, such as confidence or cultural affinity.

Keywords

Medical tourism, Tourism, Health, Travel

JEL Classification

I150, Z300, Z320

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