Does Country Image Moderate the Relationship Between Motivation and Visit Intention of Medical Tourists to India?

This study aims to investigate the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations on the visit intention of medical tourists to a developing country like India, focusing on the role of country image as a moderator. This study employed partial least square-based structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses using data from 302 medical tourists visiting India for treatment. The findings of this study confirmed that both the dimensions of extrinsic motivation, namely perceived benefit and affordability, have a positive and significant impact on the visit intention of medical tourists to India. In contrast, only the cosmopolitanism dimension of intrinsic motivation has a positive and significant effect on the visit intention of medical tourists to India. This study also confirmed that country image significantly moderates the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation dimensions and medical tourists' visit intention to India. The study's findings have significant theoretical and managerial implications as they explore the effect of extrinsic and intrinsic travel motivation on medical tourists' intention to visit an emerging economy, considering the country's image as a moderator.