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Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

Abstract

Thailand is already a top global medical tourism destination, yet it continues to improve its products and services intended for foreign medical tourists (FMT). Thailand’s 2017–2026 policy, aimed at positioning itself as a world-class medical hub, is geared precisely to ensure that the tourism industry is continually improved and that the FMT are always considered, for example, in terms of their repurchase intention. Repurchase intention is strategic to Thailand: it has implications for the repeat visits among the FMT as well as it is indicative of the industry quality, both of which have far-reaching consequences for the country’s tourist arrivals and revenues. Employing a structural equation modeling, this study demonstrates the effects of five factors, namely, customer expectation, perceived quality, brand experience, perceived value, and customer satisfaction, on repurchase intention among a sample of 600 FMT, who were recruited and interviewed at 16 hospitals in Bangkok. Results indicate that customer satisfaction has the foremost effect on repurchase intention, and followed, albeit with far lesser effects, by customer expectation, brand experience, perceived value, and perceived quality, in that order. In general, the five-factor model was found to have only explained 34.2% of the variance in the repurchase intention among the FMT interviewed. The model is subject to further testing and validation.

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