An Examination of Bangladeshi Patients’ Loyalty towards a Private Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand
Abstract
Abstract
The study aims to understand what influence medical tourists, more precisely, Bangladeshi medical tourists’ loyalty towards a private hospital. By considering four variables, which are: satisfaction, perceived value, trust, and destination image, this study conducts a survey-based research with 356 Bangladeshi patients who came to the hospital for medical treatment. The questionnaire, containing 42 items, covered the essence of four variables and the loyalty of the patient towards the hospital. The questionnaires were distributed from 1st April to 30th April, 2013. The results of the questionnaires were analyzed and interpreted in detail using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0. Descriptive analysis section applies mean score, frequency, and percent to summarize data. To prove the hypotheses, Pearson correlation coefficient was used to find the relationship among satisfaction, perceived value, trust, destination image, and loyalty toward medical tourism in the private hospital. The result shows that medical tourists’ satisfaction, perceived value, trust, and destination image, all have a significant influence on tourists’ loyalty towards medical tourism at this private hospital. The findings from this study should help all parties concerned not only in realizing the ongoing trends of medical tourism but also it will help them to plan their future to acquire the best outcome. Recommendation has been proposed for the hospital management, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), medical tourism sector for further action.
Keywords: medical tourists, satisfaction, perceived value, trust, destination image
