Investigating The Relationships Between Service Quality,Satisfaction,and Behavior Intentions For Chinese Medical Tourists In Thailand

Medical tourism,the integration of tourism and health services,is the growing business of the current world tourism industry.Among the top medical destinations,Thailand is the popular destination choice.The number of foreign patients visiting Thailand for medical tourism is growing rapidly every year and Chinese tourists are one of Thailand's major visitors,especially after the proclamation of China's "two-child policy." Since Thailand's medical standard is comparable to that of the developed countries in terms of personnel,equipment,techniques,and services,while offers affordable prices,hence,Thailand has become the top choice for many Chinese couples seeking for medical treatment overseas.This research aimed to study the antecedence factors influencing the behavioral intentions of Chinese medical tourists who obtain assisted reproductive service in Thailand.The medical tourism service quality model was built based on literature review.The model also evaluated the relationship between medical tourist service quality and behavioral intention in order to better understand the relationship between Thai medical tourism service providers and Chinese medical tourists.According to the model,satisfaction is a mediator between service quality and behavioral intention.Satisfaction is divided into two dimensions which are a)the transaction-based satisfaction focusing on the interaction of medical service providers and medical visitors in the service process and;b)relationship-based satisfaction focusing on the relationship between health service providers and patients.The behavioral intentions includes word-of-mouth(WOM)(recommendation)intention,intention to revisit Thailand for medical tourism and intention to revisit Thailand for travel.The model also introduced price reasonableness as a moderator influencing on the relationship between satisfaction and behavioral intentions.The study obtained 366 sample data.The sample of this study is Chinese medical tourists receiving IVF in Thailand.Based on the SPSS software descriptive statistics,the structural equation model of AMOS software and regression analysis,the results show that:1)The quality of medical service has a significant positive impact on transaction-based and relationship-based satisfaction.2)Relationship-based satisfaction has a positive intermediary role in the relationship between the services quality and the three behavioral intentions.Transaction-based satisfaction only plays a positive role in the relationship between the services quality and the two behavioral intentions(WOM recommendation intention,revisiting medical tourism in Thailand).3)Perceived price reasonableness only has a negative moderation effect on the relationship between the relationship-based satisfaction and the three behavioral intentions.This study enriches and expands the research on the relationship between service quality and behavioral intentions by further excavating the content of satisfaction,and provides empirical evidence through questionnaire survey of Chinese medical tourists who obtained IVF service in Thailand.The findings emphasize that relationship-based satisfaction has a stronger impact on the relationship between quality of care and behavioral intentions.The relevant healthcare service providers in Thailand should more concern over the relationship with Chinese medical tourists as the relationship factors become more sensitive and important factors for Chinese medical tourists.