New research on medical tourism consumer behaviour

PlacidWay has published ‘2014 Medical Tourism Global Consumer Demand Survey Analysis’. The research based on a global sample of potential and actual medical tourists, analyzes the consumer’s behavior when making medical tourism decisions and the consumer specific needs, perceptions, and desires.
PlacidWay has published ‘2014 Medical Tourism Global Consumer Demand Survey Analysis’. The research based on a global sample of potential and actual medical tourists, analyzes the consumer’s behavior when making medical tourism decisions and the consumer specific needs, perceptions, and desires.

Pramod Goel of PlacidWay explains,” It is important that medical providers, medical tourism groups and governments trying to promote medical travel, align their healthcare solutions by understanding the nature of demand and developing a specific message as well as the specific programme, closely mapped to consumer demand,”

The purpose of the new report is to identify how medical consumers think, what are their needs, how will they buy, where do they seek information, what is important for them when considering traveling abroad for medical care, what are their income levels, why would they go abroad for healthcare, and who is the medical consumer or medical tourist.

The research gathered information from those who have already traveled abroad for medical care, and from people who are considering going overseas for healthcare, and analyzed the what, how, where, when, who and which of the perceived medical travellers.

The objective of this research is to understand consumers buying behavior, their needs, and their perception of the medical tourism. The study also identifies how factors such as age, gender, and geographical region have an impact on medical travel.

The analysis sheds some light on medical tourism industry from consumers’ perspective and answers questions:
o Who is the consumer?
o What is the consumer’s demographic composition?
o Which treatments would the consumer consider important to buy globally?
o Why would the consumer travel abroad to receive medical services?
o Where would the consumer go to get such treatments?
o Where would the consumer go to find useful information?
o How much is the consumer willing to pay for medical services abroad?
o When is the consumer ready to make medical travel decisions?

Pramod Goel concludes, “As the medical tourism industry matures, by understanding consumers we may bring equilibrium to the supply and demand equation of medical travel. We will be able to institute appropriate educational elements to propel the demand. We can customize medical travel products and services to meet and expand consumers’ expectations from this industry.”