Effective Factors of Medical Tourists' Satisfaction

The prospering global medical tourism market today requires more instructive studies to betterunderstand the determinants of customer satisfaction. It is desirable to provide high quality service and fulfill medical tourists' expectations according to market analysis and market segmentation, so that market share can be improved. This thesis attempts to develop an instrument to evaluate effective factors of medical tourists' satisfaction integrating the concepts of medical and tourism services.A multiple case study was conducted at two hospitals specialized in medical tourism services and located in different cities, Tehran and Mashhad, Iran. Data were collected by means of a Kano's questionnaire to investigate which attributes are more or less important based on customers' satisfaction and dissatisfaction criteria. In this study, thirty seven attributes covering nine main aspects are classified using Kano’s model.The results indicate that respondents perceive 'Factors Concerning octors', 'Accessibility' and 'Factors Concerning Nurses' respectively as the most important dimensions, that their absence influences on customer dissatisfaction. Also the important factors which have direct relation with medical tourism satisfaction respectively are 'Accommodation', 'Attractions' and 'Factors Concerning Space and Facilities'. On the other hand 'Factors Concerning Service Staff' and 'Activities' are the two least important aspects.Findings from data analysis indicate a good fit for the proposed model, since both medical and tourism concepts have significant affect on medical tourist's satisfaction and dissatisfaction. However medical concepts mainly categorized as 'Must-be' requirement and tourism services categorized as 'One-dimensional' requirement for medical tourists.Validerat; 20150827 (marikav