The awareness of health tourism among local residents in Banda Hilir, Melaka / Suhana Mohamad, Nurul Adiela Jais and Nur Syafiqah Saad

Health Tourism is relatively new in Malaysia when this industry was started since the year 1997. The earliest form of health tourism such as visiting mineral or hot springs was existed in Malaysia to attract more tourists come to Malaysia. The development of Health Tourism has been extended when there are more private hospitals and medical centers offering their healthcare services especially in city area. Neighbouring country such as Singapore, Thailand and Philippines are actively promoting Health Tourism. On top of that, Malaysia competitive in providing the highest quality for healthcare services to maintain its position as the leading Health Tourism in this region. Basically, this research objective is identifying the level of knowledge about Health Tourism among local residents in Melaka by using AIDA Model. The research findings found that the level of awareness among local residents in Melaka at very low although Melaka was one of the popular place of Health Tourism activity in Malaysia. Furthermore, the respondents also presented a positive attitude to engage in Health Tourism experience through the interest and desire. The promotion via advertisement and social media might be suggested to enhance the knowledge and provide sufficient information to the local residents so that they will clearly understand of Health Tourism.