医疗旅游硕士毕业论文英文Medical tourimsmaster of science degree research project final.docx

1、医疗旅游硕士毕业论文英文Medical tourims master of science degree research project finalEvaluating the Performance of the Hotels in the Vicinity of the Selected Worlds prominent Hospitals (An empirical research project)AbstractThe field of medical tourism where patient seeks medical services abroad is gaining mo

2、re attention in both research and in practice. Patients (medical tourism) might also take advantage of tourist attractions of their destination and couple their medical experience with some pleasurable activities. While traveling, therefore, they have basic needs such as accommodation, and transport

3、ation services as well. Thus, this phenomenon might have some direct implications for the hotel industry as to how to serve these basic needs. Developing the hotels properties close the hospital where foreign patients prefer appears to be promising. Thus, the study investigates the performance of th

4、e hotels nearby 12 top quality hospitals located in 10 countries known as main tourism destinations. The study confirmed that , however, just locating in a close proximity to the selected hospitals does not necessarily result in better performance, in terms of both Revpar and occupancy rate moving a

5、verage, comparing to other hotels sited farther away from the hospitals. Background and IntroductionComparing the healthcare costs in different countries including the United States brings about the fact that many Americans who are uninsured or underinsured might not afford some medical care service

6、s within their home country. The same might hold for other developed countries with high cost of healthcare as well. This fact might encourage people to travel abroad for receiving the needed medical treatment at lower rates in some developing countries such as India, Thailand, and Singapore. For th

7、at reason the field of medical tourism has gained attention during the recent years. Countries that have seen the demand from the medical tourist have invested heavily on building infrastructures with high standards and technologies in their healthcare facilities in order to build the confidence and

8、 assure the quality of services for foreign customers (patients).In addition to receiving the medical services a medical tourist might have secondary purposes as well. Traveling to a new country and hospitality attractiveness of the country might drive the decision for them to choose their destinati

9、on country. That creates an opportunity for the countries that are well-known as a tourist destination in the world. Existence of high standard medical centers in these countries can therefore create an extra tourist demand for them. Building hotels nearby the medical facilities might be also benefi

10、cial for both patients who have received the treatment and are recovering or for those who traveled to their destination and waiting for medical procedure to be executed. They might choose to stay close to the healthcare facilities to have an easy access to their doctors and at the same time enjoy t

11、heir stay in the hotel and its axillary hospitality services such beaches and spas. Thus, understanding the financial performance of the hotels near medical facilities and comparing it with their competitive sets in their own market seems helpful for the hotel developers and investors who look for h

12、igh potential location to build hotels.Key words: Medical tourism, Hotels performance, Hospitals in top Tourist DestinationsObjective and Research QuestionBecause of the growth of medical tourism in general and the tourism attractiveness of some well-known tourist destinations such as Thailand, Turk

13、ey and Brazil, these countries can be seen as potential medical tourism destinations for patients who seek both medical treatment and wellness as well as hospitality services while enjoying their time at the destination. Therefore, development of hotels in the region where quality medical centers ar

14、e present seems promising. Thus, we can lay out the objectives of this study as follows: To examine the performance indicators of hotels including Occupancy Rate and RevPar for three different clusters of hotels that are located nearby the selected medical centers. The study investigates the four cl

15、osest (called first tiers), the next four hotels as the second tier, and the third tier, including the four next hotels neighboring the chosen medical center. Overall investigation of the profile of the hotels near the hospitals to understand what class of hotels are located close to the hospitals.A

16、ccordingly, the studys research questions includes:Is there any difference between the financial performances of hotels near medical centers in comparison with other hotels that are farther away? Whether the closest ones outperforms the others? In other words, the studys hypothesis regarding the hot

17、els performance involves:H: The average performance of the first group is better (greater Revpar and Occupancy rate) than the second groups and the second groups performance is better than the third group.Literature reviewAccording to the objective of the project regarding medical tourism and hotel

18、performance evaluation, the study scrutinizes the body of relevant literature to achieve the basis for further investigation.Medical tourism According to Connell (2006), increasing health and wellbeing have been part of tourism industry for a long time when in 18th century spas were prevalent in man

19、y part of Europe. Smyth (2005) stresses that in 19th century curative tourism places in conjunction with recreation properties were developed even in some remote regions like French territory of New Caledonia. The health benefit aspect of tourism has continued its presence to the date and people sti

20、ll visit countries such as Kyrgyztan to use health spas (Schofield, 2004). Even recently, more people travel to other countries for even more direct medical and substantial interventions and that creates medical tourism notion.In a report by Travel Research and Marketing (2006), the scope of medical

21、 and healthcare tourism is represented, figure 1. The continuum ranges from so called soft to a more disease related groups. Therefore, they maybe subjects of different literature (Smith & Puczko, 2009). Wellness or health tourism typically includes spas, exercise and massage, diet, yoga, herbal hea

22、ling, acupuncture, meditation and services of that similar type. Carerra and Bridges (2006) definition of wellness tourism involves the organized travel outside ones local environment for the maintenance, enhancement or restoration of an individuals wellbeing in mind and body Enhancement category co

23、ntains cosmetic surgery involving deliberate plastic surgeries such as facelift and breast enhancement. This category includes dentistry services as well. Under reproduction group are people travel to seek fertility related treatments which might be unavailable or even illegal in their home countrie

24、s. For Treatment of Illness category, there exists a range of medical procedure from check-ups and screening to cancer treatment and open heart surgery. Figure 1: medical and healthcare tourism scopeBasically, there is not one consolidated definition for medical tourism on what types of procedures s

25、hould be included or who distinctively medical tourists are. For instance , Pollard (2010) exclude the people whose primary reason to travel to another country is not medical treatment, not cosmetic or dentistry, as medical tourists but Connell (2013) believes that dentistry or cosmetic surgery do n

26、ot need to be excluded from the definition since some medical interventions are involved in spite of lacking the notion of treatment. On the other hand, Bookman & Bookman (2007) use medical tourism for entire industry including wellness tourism. Their definition proposed that medical tourism service

27、s comprise of three areas: invasive, diagnostic, and lifestyle treatments.Despite the lack of an agreed upon definition for medical tourist and tourism, the study, however, presents some of the widely-cited definitions here. According to Medical Tourism Association: “Medical Tourism is where people

28、who live in one country travel to another country to receive medical, dental and surgical care while at the same time receiving equal to or greater care than they would have in their own country, and are traveling for medical care because of affordability, better access to care or a higher level of

29、quality of care”. According to Horowitz (2007) “Medical tourists are presently traveling to faraway countries for cosmetic surgery, dental procedures, bariatric surgery, assisted reproductive technology, ophthalmologic care, orthopedic surgery, cardiac surgery, organ and cellular transplantation, ge

30、nder reassignment procedures, and even executive health evaluations”. Another definition from an industry includes: “patients travelling to another country for more affordable care, or care that is higher quality or more accessible” (Edelheit, 2008). The notions of non-emergency medical services and

31、 patients paying out of pocket for the services are also included in the definition of medical tourism, however established cross-border travels between neighboring is excluded from the medical tourism definition signifying the fact that diaspora traveling back to their home country for medical serv

32、ices are not considered medical tourists (Crooks, 2010).Horowitz (2007) mentions that medical tourism today is somewhat different from the traditional view of international medicine travels when patients from less developed countries travel to developed countries to seek medical treatments that are

33、unavailable in their origin countries. He emphasizes that the modern definition of medical tourism does not actually tell where the patient and the medical facilities that are provided. This definition correspond the fact that traveling both from and to developed/less developed countries can take place in this rega