Diasporic Medical Tourism: examining tourists’ profiles, antecedents and behavioural intention

Abstract

This study focuses on diasporic medical tourism (DMT), an offshoot of migration-led tourism and medical tourism. There has been growing recognition of the significance of a diasporic dimension of medical tourism worldwide, yet little is known about these travellers, especially quantitatively. This paper examines the antecedents and behavioural intention of the DMT by applying the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in three European countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) among the Polish diaspora (N=1,288), which constitutes one of the largest migrant populations in Europe. The results analysed via PLS-SEM demonstrated that the model explained 53 % of the variance (R²= 0.527, Q²= 0.392), indicating a good model fit. Constructs of Attitude (β = 0.329), Subjective Norms (β = 0.277), Perceived Behavioural Control (β = 0.112), and Past Behaviour (β = 0.302) were all statistically significant. The caring/affective/trusting relationship with doctors, familiarity with the system, second opinion, encouragement/recommendation from referents, and facilitating factors influenced the decisions to undertake the DMT. ‘Committed’ and ‘Contended’ travellers accounted for 76% of all surveyed diasporic medical travellers, indicating the significant potential of those ‘hidden’ medical travellers. Diasporic medical tourism was compared to foreign medical tourism. This study provides theoretical/practical implications and contributes to the research on medical tourism, diaspora tourism and the interrelation between tourism and migration, specifically in the European context.