Understanding medical tourists: Word-of-mouth and viral marketing as potent marketing tools

The medical tourism industry in Malaysia has grown drastically over the past ten years. This research seeks to determine the demographics of the medical tourists that are visiting Malaysia for various medical treatments. A nationwide questionnaire survey was carried out amongst outpatient medical tourists from medical tourism certified hospitals. The results indicated that majority of the tourists were repeat tourists from Indonesia and most of these outpatient patients spend about seven days in Malaysia with at least one companion. The results also revealed that most of the tourists were influenced by friends, family, relatives and doctor's referral. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.