| Title: | The Antecedent Factors Affecting Medical Tourists’ Intention to Visit Thailand for Medical Tourism: A Focus on Myanmar Patients |
| Author: | Tun Lin Aung |
| Advisor: | ดร.วรางค์รัตน์ นิติวนะกุล – Dr.Warangrat Nitiwannakul |
| Degree: | Master of Business Administration |
| Major: | Marketing Management |
| Faculty: | บัณฑิตวิทยาลัย (Graduate School) |
| Academic year: | 2569 (2026) |
| Published: | ตีพิมพ์ในวารสาร (Journal Name) Journal of Business Administration and Languages (JBAL) Vol. 13 No.1 January – June 2025 pp.79–91 TCI Tier 1 Publication Year: 2568 (2025) View |
Abstract
The medical tourism industry has developed rapidly in recent years, with Thailand developing as a main destination in Asia for many medical tourists. This study aimed to investigate the factors influencing Myanmar medical tourists’ intention to travel to Thailand for the purpose of medical tourism. By reviewing insights from literature, perceived health risk, perceived service quality, perceived medical cost, social network influence, perceived information, perceived ease of travel, perceived subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control are identified as key factors and the relationships between these key factors and the behavior intention of Myanmar’s medical tourists are examined. This study adopted a quantitative research design. Data were collected from 386 Myanmar medical tourists who had previous experience in medical tourism by using a questionnaire and a convenience sampling method. Participants were chosen based on their willingness to take part in the study. The data were analyzed using SPSS software, where KMO and Bartlett’s Sphericity tests were calculated and reliability, validity and correlation were analyzed. The results show that the intention to seek medical care in Thailand is positively influenced by social network influence, perceived ease of travel, perceived medical cost, and perceived service quality. This study highlights the significant factors influencing Myanmar patients’ intention for medical tourism in Thailand, which also contributes valuable insights for other academic studies. Healthcare providers and policy marketers can customize strategies to Myanmar medical tourists’ preferences by analyzing these key factors influencing their intention to travel. Targeted improvements in the service quality, social media interaction, pricing, traveling and comfort can have a favorable impact on patient decisions and attract more medical tourists to Thailand.
Keywords: medical tourism, Myanmar patients, social influence, travel intention, Thailand