Medical Tourism blogs: Patient intention to choose a medical destination or treatment

• Sedigheh Moghavvemi ^[2] ; Brian Kee Mun Wong ^[2] ; Ali Hassani ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Science and Culture

     University of Science and Culture

     Irán

     
  2. [2] University Malaya
• Localización: Revista Turismo & Desenvolvimento, ISSN 1645-9261, Nº. 39, 2022, págs. 389-404
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The Internet and the world wide web are fundamental locations within our e-World - thus emerging new e-source of health and healthcare information that are an essential part of the changes in the medical tourism industry. The issues related to the challenges and problems that medical tourists face and the reliability of the information that influences their decision-making need special attention since much fake advertising, news, and business is distributed through social media and targeted medical tourists. A blog is different from other social media since the reader can identify the blogger; therefore, trust is unique. Considering past research on medical tourism and blogs, this study examines whether medical blogs would impact potential medical tourists settling on a choice of healthcare abroad. Data were collected from 143 blog readers and analyzed through Amos. Results showed that information usefulness and blog credibility are the key determinants inuencing medical blog readers' intention to travel to destinations for treatments. Many people consider blogs as self-reported and reliable compared to the information on social media, which many people question its reliability and do not trust the information. Therefore, ignoring this information and area of research is not possible