외국인 의료관광객의 방한 수요 결정요인

Determinants of International Medical Tourists' Demand for Visiting Korea: An Individual Approach to Medical and Tourism Services

Compared to mass tourists and individual tourists, medical tourists are likely to stay longer and pay more at tourist destinations. Due to their different behavioral patterns and sizable economic impact, a number of Asian countries are eager to attract more medical tourists to date. This study aims to examine distinctive influences of several variables on medical tourists' demand for visiting Korea. In particular, this paper intends to investigate different roles of the two features of medical services and travel services comprising the concept of medical tourism. In order to specify the medical tourists' demand, this study makes use of count data models such as zero-truncated Poisson and zero-truncated negative binomial models. Study results suggest that medical tourists are more likely to visit Korea as they indicate higher importance on the aspects of medical services. This study fails to identify statistically significant associations between the two dimensions of travel services and the number of visitors to Korea for medical tourism. Based on study results, this study presents several management implications that help the two key players in medical tourism develop diverse efficient strategies.