An Approach to Promote Medical Tourism’s Cluster in Thailand
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Abstract
The aim of this study is to develop the model to promote medical tourism’s cluster in Thailand, with emphasis on the roles played by service providers, suppliers and supporting industry. In pursuit of this objective, the study explores 3 key constitutional components as, 1) the motivation, perception and decision making of medical tourists for analyzing the customers’ need, segmentation, product attribute and destination image 2) resource competencies, strategic direction, competition and co-operation intensity of medical service provider in Bangkok 3) the industry’s value chain structure, value chain competencies and value chain shortage/weakness. To reach research objective described above, mix methods with quantitative and qualitative research techniques were used. The quantitative research was applied to investigate customers’ need, behavior, motivation, decision making criteria, perception and decision making process in choosing the destination for obtaining medical services. The data were collected from 250 medical tourists who obtained medical service in four selected well known hospitals among medical tourist. The descriptive and inferential statistic technics were extensively used to analyze the data. The qualitative research method was performed in two categories as, 1) to explore the competencies, strategies, competition and co-operation strategy of eight medical service providers located in Bangkok 2) to explore the structure, competencies and shortage/weakness of the value chain of MEDICAL, by using content analysis. The study results focal points that a model must consist of four key elements in medical service cluster, including medical service demand by the medical tourist, medical service providers, suppliers and supporting industries, and regulators and facilitators. The sub-model developed for each key component are; 1) C-A-P-A-B-L-E model for supplier and supporting industry must, 2) S-P-E-C-I-A-L model for the medical service provider, 3) P-R-I-M-E model for medical service marketing to the foreign customer, and the last, 4) E-F-F-I-C-I-E-N-C-Y model for regulator and facilitator.
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