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Background: This study seeks to evaluate the prevalence of and the association between receiving medical care abroad and the level of trust that citizens from the Western Balkans-Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro-have in their healthcare systems. Method(s): The study is cross-sectional and was carried out during three months (July 25-October 30, 2021) through a self-reported questionnaire administered through the Google Forms platform. The study included approximately two-thousand citizens (N=2,356) aged eighteen (18) to seventy (70). Result(s): More than one-third (37.2%) of respondents stated that they or a relative had received healthcare services abroad during the last twelve (12) months. Citizens of Montenegro had the highest prevalence of receiving healthcare services abroad at 43.8%, followed by those from Bosnia and Herzegovina at 39%. No statistically significant difference was found in the level of trust in the healthcare system in the country between those who received healthcare services abroad (4.41+/-2.88) (out of 10) and those who did not (4.48+/-2.81) (t=-0.587, p=0.557). Conclusion(s): We ultimately conclude that more than one-third of the participants in our study have traveled abroad for healthcare purposes, with females, those living in urban areas, and those who have previously had a negative healthcare experience in their home country all being more likely to rely on health tourism.Copyright © 2023 Maljichi et al.
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Introduction: covid 19 has had an undeniable impact on various sectors of the economy and the tourism sector, including health tourism. Health tourism has had a significant impact on the prevalence of corona due to its direct relationship with people's health. The purpose of this study is was to identify related factors of health tourism on covid-19. Methods: he current research is a qualitative research and was done with the theme analysis method. Data collection has been done using semi-structured interviews with health tourism experts and health tourists. Targeted sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached, and a total of 14 samples were selected. Results: The results showed that related factors of health tourism on covid 19 epidemic was in both micro and macro levvels. In the micro domain, three categories of factors, including factors related to health tourism services, factors related to tourism ancillary services, and factors related to health tourists, have been affected by covid 19. In the macro sector, the related factors of health tourism on covid 19 epidemic has been in 4 sectors: economic, technological, political-legal and cultural-social. Conclusion: Based on the results of the research, things like the lack of equipment due to its allocation to the corona sectors, the expansion of online services, and the lack of specialized human resources have affected health tourism. In the factors related to ancillary services, unused capacities have increased and this discussion has led to the closure of some sectors. This issue will reduce the capacity of ancillary services in the post-corona period and will be a threat to the development of health tourism. In the tourist sector, Corona has led to an increase in the general awareness of tourists as well as an increase in health concerns, and price sensitivity has decreased in relation to health issues.
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic have actualized the need to rethink the recreational use of thermal mineral springs by resort hotels in order to treat the consequences of post-war injuries, psychological rehabilitation and health restoration. Solving these problems requires strengthening the role of recreational enterprises and resort hotels in restoring the health of the population by expanding the directions of their economic activity and forming the investment attractiveness of the national resort and recreational product in world markets. The publication pays special attention to determining the physical and chemical properties of thermal mineral springs, which is an important component in the development of healing methods and the creation of specific health recovery programs. The spatial structure of the distribution of thermal mineral springs by regions of the world is clarified. The main types of establishments with thermal mineral springs, which provide recreational, healing and therapeutic services, are determined. In addition, the amount of financial losses suffered by institutions with thermal mineral springs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic is determined, as well as the dynamics of volume and forecast of growth of the world market of thermal mineral springs, due to the need to recover health, is identified. According to the results of the study, it is found that thermal mineral springs are a unique natural resource. Their recreational use is the main activity of many resort hotels. As a result of the Russian aggression and the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a shift in emphasis in the functioning of resort hotels from relaxation and rest towards treatment and rehabilitation, which will help restore the demand for resort and recreational services in the post-war period. Thus, the increase in demand for the health-recovering, medical and recreational services will make it possible to expand the recreational use of thermal mineral springs, update the menu of services and become more appealing for attracting investment capital.
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Spas were attracting visitors since ancient times. Study aims to monitor the changes in spa tourism statistics in the period of 2010-2020 for the selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Croatia, Hungary, Serbia and Slovenia), with particular attention given to the average development rate (ADR) and average growth rate (AGR), and overnight stays and an average length of stay. The reference to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on overnight stays and an average length of stay was discussed as well. Moreover, upon analysis of the existing tourism data for the period of 2010-2020, prediction of the post-pandemic period (until 2023-2025) was also implemented with the use of a linear model. In addition, using the broad criteria of a four-night stay as a minimum stay for medical treatments, Serbia has shown the characteristics of a medical spa, while Slovenia and Croatia could be characterized as "wellness medical", and finally Hungary was considered as a wellness spa destination.
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In less developed countries (LDC), health tourism can be seen as a way of specializing in tourism. Covid19 makes even more imperative the need to promote health tourism and also to link it to a greater extent to wellness tourism, thus responding to the current market requirements. The main objective of this study is to assess whether the current tourism offer in Senegal (LDC) could allow health tourism to be implemented. An ad-hoc study has been performed in Senegal's Coastal Region, where interviews directed at the socioeconomic agents and structured questionnaires have been developed, collecting information from the two populations: one sample of 21 private clinics and another of 31 hotels. The data obtained were analyzed following a descriptive analysis. The results indicate that it is possible the developing of wellness tourism, but not medical tourism. Even in the case of a laborintensive product, offering health tourism as a new tourist product requires more modern and sophisticated technological equipment © 2023,African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure. All Rights Reserved.
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An increasing number of tourism studies are focusing on travel anxiety, fear, and worry, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explored the impact of worry on individuals' intentions to visit Japanese hot springs (onsen) during the COVID-19 pandemic. A market survey (N = 1042) was conducted in Tokyo. Psychographic segmentation based on exploratory factor analysis was used to group Japanese respondents. Three separate segments emerged as a result: Concerned Visitors, Carefree Visitors, and Trusting Visitors;these segments were based on perceived threat intensity, perceived infectability, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and crowded perception and attitude. These segments were then profiled using factors based on demographic information and visit intention under three criteria: (a) without external travel incentives, (b) with an attractive travel package, or (c) discounts provided by the national Go to Travel campaign. Both attractive package prices and discounts provided by Go to Travel had a small effect on boosting visit intention. Notably, a carefree attitude toward COVID-19 did not increase visit intention and should not be considered a factor that may increase the number of people visiting onsen. Meanwhile, marital status and household composition significantly impacted intention to visit. The segments differed significantly by age, marital status, and family composition, but not gender.
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Wellness tourism is emerging as one of the most preferred tourism segments for both travel enthusiasts and ordinary vacation seekers due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant stress and anxiety. It is a niche tourism segment with enormous ability to emerge as the most in demand for coming years. This study carries out a bibliometric analysis to identify the prominent journals, their characteristics and total citations, trending keywords, emerging topics etc, in wellness tourism. With 159 articles extracted from the Web of Science database, it was observed that the word ‘health' was often used, and that ‘medical tourism' was the most popular topic. China takes the lead among world nations for having conducted most research in this field. The findings of the study could be beneficial to the research community, academia, the tourism industry and policymakers. The publication acknowledges its limitations but gives the implications for further research. © by the author, licensee University of Lodz – Lodz University Press, Lodz, Poland.
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Ekonomik ve sosyal kalkınma çabalarında gelirlerin çeşitlendirilmesi önemli bir unsurdur. Bu çeşitlilikte önemli bir konumda olan sağlık turizmi, özellikle COVID-19 pandemisinin ardından, daha fazla tartışılmaya başlanmıştır. Bu sebeple ülkelerin alternatif turizm hizmetlerinde çeşitlilik geliştirmeleri de bu doğrultuda zorunluluk haline gelmiştir. Bu kapsamda, Türkiye'de büyükşehirlerin sağlık turizmi potansiyellerini karşılaştırmaya odaklanan bu çalışmada karşılaştırma kriterleri belirlenmiş ve bu kriterlerin ağırlıklandırılması çok kriterli karar verme yöntemlerinden CRITIC ile yapılmıştır. Elde edilen bu ağırlıklar ve kriter değerleri kullanılarak, 30 büyükşehir WASPAS yöntemi ile sıralanmıştır. Sıralama sonuçlarına göre Ístanbul, Antalya, Ankara, Ízmir ve Adana ilk beş sırada yer almıştır. Son sıralarda ise Hatay, Mersin, Mardin, Sakarya ve Şanlıurfa yer almıştır. Bu sonuçlara göre sağlık turizmi alanında bölgesel ve ulusal ölçekte rekabetçiliğe katkı sağlayacağı değerlendirilen stratejik önerilere de yer verilmiştir.Alternate : Diversification of incomes is an important element in economic and social development efforts. Health tourism, which has an important place in this diversity, has started to be discussed more, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it has become a necessity for countries to develop diversity in alternative tourism services. In this context, in this study, which focuses on comparing the health tourism potentials of metropolitan cities in Turkey, comparison criteria were determined, and the weighting of these criteria was made with CRITIC, one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods. Thirty metropolitan cities were ranked by WASPAS method using these weights and criterion values. According to the ranking results, Istanbul, Antalya, Ankara, Izmir and Adana took the first five places. Hatay, Mersin, Mardin, Sakarya and Şanlıurfa took the last place. According to these results, strategic suggestions that are considered to contribute to regional and national competitiveness in the field of medical health tourism are also included.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the travel and tourism sector more than any previous natural or human-caused event. Recognizing the pandemic as an opportunity for self-reflection, calls to action implore the sector to reimagine, reevaluate, and restructure tourism to be more sustainable, balanced, and equitable. Meanwhile, COVID-19 will exacerbate the public health and environmental risks of tourism, widening unjust health disparities between tourists and locals. In response, we offer a novel framework centering public health and community consent as a model for future research and programming in tourism.
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In an effort to contain the advancement of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many states have introduced unprecedented peacetime measures ranging from border closures and travel bans to the suspension of visa exemptions, as well as internal mobility restrictions, including full lockdowns and quarantine for incoming passengers. Nevertheless, coercive measures such as sanctions continue to be applied during the COVID-19 outbreak and have largely undermined sanctioned countries' capacity to respond to the pandemic. The latter has prompted renewed discussion of the humanitarian costs of this frequently deployed foreign policy tool against the civilian populations in the target countries. The inconsistent application of border controls and travel restrictions by states also raise questions as to the politics of pandemics and how they fulfill the International Health Regulations. Framed from a geopolitical perspective, this study aims to discuss the power of sanctions regime in relation to state responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper also discusses the degree of selectivity of border restrictions by major global tourism destinations. While the COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a health crisis, its implications are economically and geo-politically far-reaching with corresponding implications for the framing of travel and tourism within humanitarian and political contexts.
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We are developing a tourism support application using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) beacons in Senjogahara, Oku-Nikko. There are several ways to supply power to a BLE beacon. We decided to use solar-powered since the Oku-Nikko area is on a mountain, and it is not easy to visit there frequently for maintenance. So, we developed a BLE beacon with a small silicon solar cell in 2018. However, during the summer, sunlight is blocked by the leaves of trees, and it is not easy to get enough electricity to drive a BLE beacon. Therefore, we redesigned the BLE beacon using dye-sensitized solar cells to generate electricity with weaker light than ordinary silicon solar cells. We replaced BLE beacons in Senjogahara with the new beacon in 2021. We confirmed that the new BLE beacons work stably even in an environment covered with forests. In this paper, we explain the design of the new BLE beacon and how it works under weak light. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Purpose>The purpose of this study is to systematically analyze the evolution of health tourism development, identify relevant themes and segments of health tourism research and offer future research directions and practical implications for academic researchers and tourism practitioners worldwide using China as an example.Design/methodology/approach>Using a bibliometric analysis, the present study comprehensively analyzes the theme, segments and the evolution of health tourism research over the past 40 years in China.Findings>Major findings show that health tourism research in China could be divided into four stages with different characteristics, and three segments, including wellness tourism, health and wellness tourism and medical tourism. Findings also reveal the trend of health tourism development tends to be industrialized, diversified and systematic under the guidance of recent policies. Theoretically, based on the theoretical framework developed by Hall (2011), the present study contributes to the establishment and extension of the framework for health tourism within the context of China. Practically, findings can provide health tourism-related policy implications for the future development of health or health sector-integrated tourism.Research limitations/implications>The study proposes possible collaboration between government and academia in terms of health tourism-related policy formulation.Originality/value>Through 40-year bibliometric analysis of health tourism evolution in China, the present study explores the main themes of health tourism development, identifies the segments of health tourism and analyzes the development stages of health tourism. Findings should be of use to international readers to better understand the uniqueness of health tourism development and find out possible future health tourism development research directions. As a result, major contributions of this paper are the comprehensive analysis of the evolution of health tourism research and the implications on other countries and regions to adopt a pragmatic approach to explore the trend and unique characteristics of health tourism for future development.
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The scope for wellness promotion and related tourism has increased manifold amidst this global crisis exhibited through COVID 19 pandemic that results in formation and popularity of medical hotels, patient hotels and such other new types through partnerships and alliances in many cities in Asia. Severely affected hospitality industry and their professionals are in search for new avenues and scopes now. This present study is an understanding of perceptions and attitudes of hospitality professionals in two diverse sectors with relatively new expertise and skills. This study includes the finding of determinants from the perspective of hospitality professionals by employing an ordered probit model and expressing its implications for future industry and academia.
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To systematically understand the evolution of health tourism in China, the present study visually analyzes the theme evolution and frontiers of Chinese health tourism research on the basis of the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database through bibliometric analysis. The findings reflect the existence of diverse clustering themes in health tourism research, and the formation time of each theme is different. The findings also indicate that the change in the theme is led by government policy. Theoretically, the findings of the present study can, on the one hand, contribute to the health tourism literature by comprehensively exploring and summarizing the themes and topics of health tourism development in China since its appearance (i.e., 1981), and, on the other hand, provide references for future health tourism exploration directions. Findings of the present study can provide references for effective future development directions of the health tourism industry.
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In recent years, health systems around the world have become overloaded, that has led to rising health care prices and health insurance premiums. It is the medical service providers who have recognized the possibility of increasing the quality of health care services, providing privacy, lower costs and providing a number of medical procedures that are not available to patients in their home countries. Health tourism as the broadest type of tourism is recognized as the driving force of tourism development in Croatia, is divided into three segments: spa, wellness and medical tourism. Medical tourism as a part of health tourism includes trips primarily motivated by the use of medical services of a greater or lesser degree of complexity, such as dental, surgical, rehabilitation, etc. The increase in travel motivated by the use of medical tourism services encourages the opening of new and raising the quality of existing specialized health care institutions and the possible dispersion of the offer to the continental part of Croatia except the city of Zagreb. It was the coronavirus pandemic that pointed out that medical tourism in the destinations of continental Croatia can compete with destinations on the coast with its natural and social resources that have not yet been sufficiently explored and touristically valorised As this is mostly a rural area that is not suitable for the development of mass tourism, the aim of this paper is to investigate and present medical tourism as a tourist product that would complement and increase the quality 61 the existing tourist offer. For the purpose of this research, a survey among medical experts was conducted, and following research methods were used: desk research to search for various it formation and knowledge in the field of medical tourism and general scientific methods such as analysis and synthesis and descriptive statistics
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The tourism sector has been strongly affected by the COVID-19 health crisis. In this context, spa tourism, in the process of reconceptualizing towards wellness, faces a new scenario. The main aim is to analyze whether the behavior and needs of clients of spa tourism in Spain have undergone changes during the pandemic. The research is based on field work and a questionnaire of the spa of Archena (Murcia) to 1406 clients. The results evidence that participants have new needs and prefer spas as vacation destinations, to spend the night and receive health treatments. However, the level of economic uncertainty of many of them has increased exponentially and, although the security measures in the establishment are solid, most are not willing to assume extra economic costs. This reality can guide thermal establishments to quickly and strategically redirect their offer to a demand with new needs derived from the pandemic. In addition, it is an opportunity for spas to position themselves as a strategic tourism modality in the health crisis.
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Today, the tourism industry is one of the most dynamic developing sectors of the world economy and an important factor in the social and economic development of regions and countries. It is known as one of the three first-class profitable industries in the world, which in order to expand and develop requires the cooperation and agreement of environmental, cultural, economic, political and social factors at the community level, in this regard, the phenomenon what has now negatively affected the tourism industry in Iran and the world is the Corona (Covid-19) crisis. This study suggests an infrastructure for determining the factors affecting health tourism. Therefore, the newest multi-criteria decision-making method, fuzzy best-worst method was used to calculate the relative importance of indices and Fuzzy evaluation based on distance from average solution technique was applied as a multi-attribute decision-making method to rank effective factors in health tourism. The statistical population of this research consists of directors and experts in the tourism industry Mazandaran. Based on the results of this study, improving the level of tourist security in the province ranks first among other options for the economy itself.
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As the major public health emergency with the fastest spread, the greatest range, and the most difficulty in controlling recently, COVID-19 has created a huge shock and exerted an impact on public physical and mental health. Health tourism is an effective way of alleviating the general public's physical and mental health. Thus, it is necessary to examine the event strength of COVID-19 with respect to the willingness to undertake health tourism. Such research into tourists' behavior following the spread of COVID-19 could help identify potential areas of development for the tourism industry in the period of the pandemic under normal control. Many studies have investigated the negative shock and impact of COVID-19. However, little research has focused on behavioral responses in that regard. Hitherto, studies have ignored development opportunities in the tourism industry following COVID-19. By applying the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model and event system theory, we conducted a survey among 313 participants by means of an online questionnaire. Using the structural equation modeling technique, we aimed to identify the effect of recognizing the event strength of COVID-19 (novelty recognition, disruption recognition, criticality recognition) on the intention to undertake health tourism;we did so by taking into account the mediating role of risk perception and moderating role of risk communication. We obtained the following findings. (1) The novelty recognition of the event strength of COVID-19 tended to decrease the willingness to undertake health tourism;disruption recognition did not affect that intention. However, criticality recognition did increase such willingness.(2) Novelty recognition exerted a negative impact on risk perception;criticality and disruption recognition positively improved risk perception. (3) Novelty and criticality recognition indirectly affected the intention to undertake health tourism through the partial mediating effect of risk perception. Disruption recognition indirectly affected such intention through the mediating role of risk perception.(4) Risk communication did not directly promote the intention to undertake health tourism, but it did moderate the impact of risk perception with respect to such intention. Thus, releasing more risk information makes the public more aware of health matters, which increases the intention to undertake health tourism. This study makes an important contribution to research and tourism management. First, we constructed and empirically examined a conceptual framework using the SOR model: it provided a good theoretical framework to analyze the mechanism between recognition of event strength and the intention to undertake health tourism;it broadens the application possibilities of the SOR model. Second, we clarified practical means for developing the tourism industry in the period of the pandemic under normal control;examples here are the wellness tourism industry promoting the planning and design of wellness tourism products as well as increasing investment in safety and sanitation. Such measures could also help improve risk communication, raise public awareness of risk and wellness, and promote wellness tourism.
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Nowadays, global and local tourism sector is in crisis at post-COVID-19 era. This study presents efficient infrastructure sustainable design facilities that could provide solutions for safe facilities and mobility sustainable services supporting alternative types of tourism like agritourism and sports tourism at mountainous places or close to coasts, mitigating associated risks. A useful roadmap is presented for efficient green circular economy for all in the society should adopt particular effective construction green designs with the proper utilization of green renewable resources and clean technologies support that promote public health protection, avoiding chemical toxic pollutants to the environment. In this way, new opportunities are created for an integrated health policy using proper economic instruments that achieve investments at regional level, generating effective construction design solutions for tourism services, including safe green transportation infrastructures, efficient green hydraulic projects, safe green building facilities with effective hydro-geotechnical designs for public health protection in climate change, energy crisis, food security and global economic crisis at post COVID-19 era. Hence, the concept of green circular economy (CE) has received increasing attention between policymakers and stakeholders worldwide. This work aims to present the importance of useful geo-environmental designs within green construction facilities supporting biofuels and renewable resources production alternative types of tourism. Useful project management geoinformation ICT’s, IoT’s, web g.i.s solutions are necessary that include efficient hydraulic designs, sustainable development, monitoring schemes, associated green tourism infrastructure designs, safe green transportation systems, efficient hydro-geotechnical projects, robust irrigation-drainage designs and green effective logistics in particular tourism services for environmental, public health protection. Moreover, in order to achieve competitive experiencing, safe green travel destinations are necessary protecting public health that are supported by innovative construction designs, reclamation projects for enhancing associative activities within sport tourism, agritourism, cultural sites, ecological places, archaeological geographies, traditional recipes, drinks and heritage monuments. The latter could be combined with proper e-learning, monitoring schemes, training web utilities for stakeholders at sustainable tourism infrastructures and vocational educational useful training utilities. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Epidemiological problems often result in new panoramas and challenges for tourism. The hospitality industry and activity in Brazil, and on the planet, have created new architectural forms to handle the sanitary needs that are required, at every moment, due to health problems that arise. At the end of the nineteenth century and up to the twentieth century, the creation of places to host sick, and even healthy people seeking treatment and safety, gave rise to numerous tourist destinations around the world. In this way, it is to point out these practices in different medium-sized locations in Brazil, developed through - and in function of -installation of these accommodations, such as Campos do Jordão (SP), Petropolis (RJ), Garanhuns (PE) and São Francisco de Paula (RS). This research seeks to explore, by means of a bibliographic reference survey, about this demand. It is believed that these, associated since the tuberculosis crisis, after a century and a half, are able to provide answers to the world regarding the current urban and architectural challenge established with the new COVID-19 pandemic. This time, as in previous times, new paradigms of uncertainty emerge across the planet, also leading to new challenges for hosting equipment. These, today, are no longer seen as possibilities for treatment or distancing, but to meet a new global approach to health security. In presenting this panorama, this research seeks to achieve and present new expectations for the lodging industry in terms of new and future protocols and post-epidemic social demands. © 2021 by Emerald Publishing Limited.