An analysis of online narratives by medical tourists to Malaysia and Thailand / Nur Syafiqah Abd Mutalib

Medical tourism is a practice of travelling to other countries for the purpose of obtaining healthcare treatments. (1) Malaysia and Thailand are the main regional hubs for the medical tourism industry where visas are available for medical tourist; government agencies have been given mandate to increase the inflows of medical tourist to both countries as well. In 2006 and 2007, an estimation of 2 million medical tourists had practiced medical tourism in Malaysia and Thailand which makes these countries earned about US$ 3 billion revenue. This study is a qualitative study which analyses online narratives by medical tourist of Malaysia and Thailand. This study listed out various factors that had assisted medical tourists in decision-making to practice medical tourism as well as satisfaction and perceptions on the practice of medical tourism from overall experiences of the practice. This study can bring in­ depth understanding on the issues of medical tourism. The findings from this study may be useful to assist in decision-making of the future medical tourism and may give opportunities for providers of the medical tourism to improve their quality of services according to the global patients' demand.