Understanding Muslim Medical Tourists’ Perception Towards Islamic Friendly Hospital

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the factors that influence to Muslim tourists’ intention to revisit Islamic-friendly hospital. This study contributes practice and management implications that assist in motivating Islamic medical tourism service. As the objective of this paper is to measure the Muslim medical tourists’ perception for Islamic medical tourism services in Malaysia, this study applied partial least square (PLS) technique to test the conceptual model. Data is collected using structural questionnaire from Islamic-friendly hospital in Kuala Lumpur. The sample included 238 effective Muslim medical tourists who had visited Malaysia. The results show that healthcare providers’ behaviour, Shariah compliance practices, healthcare ethics and safety/security have a positive impact on attitudes and satisfaction. In contrast, healthcare ethics has no significant relationship with satisfaction, whilst, attitudes have a significant relationship with satisfaction. In addition, the results also revealed that attitudes and satisfaction have a significant impact on intention to revisit towards Islamic-friendly hospital. Malaysia needs to introduce and promote Islamic-friendly medical tourism services attracting more Muslim patients from different Muslim and non-Muslim countries. This study contributes a foundation for future research for Islamic-friendly medical tourism service delivery perception and expectations in the fast increasing medical service tourism industry.