Medical Tourism : Introduction

During the past four years, the market grew at a whopping rate of 20-30% and is expected to grow further. Considering this growth the current market size is estimated to be $100 billion. Medical Tourism industry offers tremendous potential for the developing countries because of their low-cost advantage. The advantages of medical tourism include improvement in export earnings and healthcare infrastructure. Many people in westernised world are accustomed to visit other nations which can offer medical treatment and very economy rates.In other words high quality health care treatments can be best available abroad at a very affordable prices (Herrick, 2007). Medical tourism has been very popular among the nations like Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Cuba, South Africa, Singapore etc (Bookman, 2007). In order to realize the full potential of the industry, it is imperative for these countries to develop a strategic plan for coordinating various industry players –the medical practitioners, private hospitals, policy makers, hotels, trans portation services and tour operators.This report presents the strategy that needs to be implemented by India, one of the key destinations for Medical tourism, in order to achieve industry-leadership. The reason for rapid growth of the medical tourism may be attributed to long waiting lists, opened channels for a high quality treatments etc (Carrera and Percivil, 2008). The Medical Tourism Industry in India is poised to be the next big success story after software. With a great information technology (IT) hub in India, it has got great potential for medical tourism (Connell, 2006).According to a Mckinsey-CII study the market size is estimated to be Rs. 5000-10000 Crores by 2012. The key concerns facing the industry include: absence of government initiative, lack of a coordinated effort to promote the industry, no accreditation mechanism for hospitals and the lack of uniform pricing policies and standards across hospitals . 2. 0 Aims To analyse business strategies of medical tourism industry and based on the data analysed necessary recommendations are provided in order to develop the efficacy of the this industry in India. . 1 Objectives * To explore the field of medical tourism and different business strategic approaches followed by other developing nations * To analyse the current position of Medical Tourism in India * To evaluate business strategies thrusts for the future * To provide necessary conclusion and recommendation. 2. 2 Scope of the study: There has been a considerable improvement in medical tourism all over the world. However, the developing nation like India needs to develop its own areas to contribute more towards medical tourism.The research had found suitable hypothesis for this study which will be helpful to be tested and effectively practiced in India. The conclusion may provide additional plans for the sustainability of medical tourism in the state. 3. 0 Reasearch Methodology Res earch helps in exploring the new things in certain area of interest and enhances the knowledge (Jenkowicz, 2003). It helps in analysing the conflicts in that particular area and tries out in finding some solutions for a particular conflict. It is the logical and systematic exploration of particular area of interest (Collins, 2003).These acts as template for carry out research. This further enhances the quality of the research (Malhotra, Birks, 2005). Research design can be classified as follows: Figure 3. 1: research design (Malhotra and Birks, 2005) The current study primarily focuses on the business strategies medical tourism in India. An exploratory research is adopted for this current study whereby the key problematic area is not yet identified. On the other hand the conclusive design has only very confined or specific hypothesis. This is a complex study which will have a small sample size.Hence the data thus collected can be quantifiable. The questionnaires in case of the descr iptive study are pre-formulated. Of all the different types of studies the cross sectional studies are considered to be the commonest approach. In case of simple cross sectional studies the respondents will be interviewed only one time where as in case of multiple cross sectional studies the two or more respondents will be interviewed at one time. Cohort analysis, which will be categorised under the multiple cross sectional studies, group of individuals will be exposed to equal traits at given time period.There has been a significant difference between longitudinal and cross sectional research however, longitudinal sample remains same unlike of cross sectional research. The size of the smaple will always remain same if both the researches such as casual and descriptive research are equal in representation (Malhotra, 2006). Research methods According to Blaxter (2006), the research skills constituting selection, analytics and presentation of data explore facts through some distortion s of any interested subject. The research methods have been broadly classified.However, critically evaluating the data through further research would be carried out with help of previous research validation. The methods could be in mixed approach such as quantitative and qualitative methods. The researcher understood that there should be a deep understanding of the tools before incorporating it into the research (Grix, 2004). The researcher finds interpretivism as best approach to explore the subject and to identify the data using qualitative research techniques. There are two different types of approaches commonly used such as inductive and eductive approach. The research is purely based on the end result which is much similar to inductive approach so, the deductive approach is eliminated from this research. The researcher is very keen on identifying suitable tools and techniques to derive appropriate research methods and data collections for which a proper research strategy is to be used which would be critically analysed and confirmed through case studies (Punch, et al, 2004). 3. 1 Data collection: It is the important aspect in the research process.All the research tools and techniques used to collect data is performed with subject to personal interaction, focus groups, observation and artefacts. All the data collection are identified with two segments such as primary data collection and secondary data collection. 3. 1. 1 Primary data: All the data related to qualitative and quantitative methods are observed through this technique. In this primary research, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews are considered as important. The researcher chosen closed ended questionnaire which will be more suitable for the research undertaken (Naoum, 2006).Based on the qualitative type, interviews were performed to derive data required for this research. The researcher had chosen telephonic interview which could be more reliable and can provide deep insight data rel evant to research study. All the interviews are preceded with questionnaire to probe the participants based on the response to previous questions (Collins, 2003). 3. 1. 2 Secondary data: The researcher had gone through a rigorous study based on books, journals, online articles and newspapers. Most of research related journals are derived from science direct and EBSC host websites.However, there is a considerable amount of vagueness found by the researcher during the collection of secondary data. The researcher had followed probability sampling technique to use in the current study which could produce accurate results needed for this research (Breweton, 2001).