Medical Tourists’ Travel Motivations: A Revisit to The Literature

Travelling abroad for the purpose of medical treatment is not a new concept. An important extension of this concept is medical tourism, where people travel to overseas countries in order to attain more timely, accurate and affordable medical care, The meteoric growth of medical tourism has garnered the attention of medical practioners, policymakers, mass media and the academicians. Such widespread growth necessitates identification, of the factors which motivate medical tourists to travel to medical tourism destinations, and understanding their relative importance. On the basis of extant literature as well as researchers’ observation, the present review attempts to identify the factors which motivate medical tourists to travel out of jurisdiction. The findings bring out that the most prominent motivation continues to be low cost in the destination countries, followed by quality of care provided in these destinations. The findings will guide the service providers in understanding what factors motivate medical tourists and devising befitting marketing strategies which will ultimately enhance satisfaction of such medical tourists.