FAQ’s for the Medical Tourism Index
What is the purpose of MTI?
The Medical Tourism Index, including its scale and validation, as a go to was a method of explaining how to measure and manage the medical tourism destination brand positioning for each destination.
What is the goal of the MTI?
The main goal is to explain and elaborate more on the results of the Medical Tourism Index for each specific destination, in order to discover the strengths, weaknesses, and areas of opportunity that will help develop the correct strategy that drives incremental business. In the end, our clients want to know how they are “perceived” in the world as a Medical Tourism destination brand, in order to develop an enhanced game plan that will help them take over a bigger share of this continuously growing industry.
How is the MTI broken down?
The MTI Index considers three main factors as the drivers of medical tourism, and each of the three factors has a subset of items that allows a more detailed comparison in order to measure each destination’s attractiveness and brand awareness as a medical tourism destination. The main three are:
- The destination’s environment
- Its medical and tourism industry
- The quality of its facilities and services.
The Medical Tourism Index provides us with more in depth ranks and scores, using separate items for each one of the main factors, which are:
- Economy, safety and Image
- Culture
- Destination Attractiveness
- Medical Tourism Costs
- Quality Care
- Reputation
- Internationalization and accreditation
- Patient experience
How can the MTI ranking be used?
The overall scores and ranks from the Medical Tourism Index tells us how each destination is doing against the other destinations participating in the index. So, we analyze each destination’s actual situation and its performance in the Medical Tourism Index. We can better understand the strengths and weaknesses that might be affecting or benefiting a destination and its medical tourism brand, and that sometimes was totally different to common beliefs. What this study is showing is the potential each and every nation has to become a successful medical tourism destination. Creating the correct strategy, by not only taking advantage of strengths, but also focusing on the weaker parts of each system to reach efficiency, brand recognition and trust can be achieved. Brands are not built overnight, but resources should be correctly allocated to guarantee better returns.
Why was the American consumer group used for the MTI?
At the time the MTI was developed, there was a significant interest from destinations all over the world to attract the American market. The drivers for Americans to leave a destination perceived to have high quality of care to other destinations was an interesting phenomenon to consider. The common driver for other consumer groups to travel for healthcare has been for better quality of care. This is less the case for the American traveler. The MTI survey may be used to study any consumer group as a consultative and research tool. If you are interested in having a consumer group surveyed using the MTI, please contact us at info@healthcareresearchcenter.org.
