Exploring Medical Tourist Experiences at a Private Hospital in Malaysia:What Could Be Improved?

Abstract

In recent years medical tourism has significantly gained popularity. Malaysia along with other Asian countries have been expanding the increasingly popular industry as they strive to be promising medical tourism destinations. Thus, it is important to identify how medical tourists’ experiences can be improved.  The purposes of the current study were to understand medical tourists’ experiences, identifying what went wrong and what could be enhanced during their visit. The findings show that, although there was overall satisfaction with their experience, there were a few challenges which could be addressed by the industry to improve medical tourism experiences. Improving quality, communication and interaction, and long-term medical tourism planning, may prevent future medical tourists from present challenges. The results could be of paramount importance for managers and leaders in the industry for enhancing the quality of medical tourist’s experiences.

Keywords: medical tourism, medical tourist experiences, Malaysian medical tourism industry, private hospital,