日本民眾對醫療觀光產品認知重要性考量因素與各國認知表現之比較研究

Abstract

醫療觀光為近年新興之產業，其結合醫療與觀光資源，讓旅客能於 海外旅遊的同時接受醫療照顧，而醫療行為包含健康檢查、美容整形、 關節置換、心血管等相關手術。促進民眾從事醫療觀光的主要因素包含 其本國醫療花費高昂、部分手術等待時間過長、國際交通之日益便利、 他國醫療資訊之透明化等，然而民眾在選定醫療觀光目的國時，考量的 因素互有差異，因此本研究選定台灣及周遭發展醫療觀光較成熟之三個 國家(南韓、新加坡及泰國)為醫療觀光目的國，針對日本民眾從事國際醫 療觀光時，所考量的因素重要性及其對上述四個國家的認知進行探討。 本研究以問卷調查方式，對於日本民眾進行問卷發放，回收有效問卷 為557份，有效問卷回收率85.7%。研究結果顯示，日本民眾至海外從事醫 療觀光時，其考量因素可歸類為「醫療院所考量」、「旅遊目的地考量」、 「旅遊與價值考量」、「資訊與知名度考量」及「國家整體形象考量」五 大因素。透過多變量變異數分析，發現日本民眾至海外從事醫療觀光時， 性別、職業及來台次數對於其考量因素之重要性認知皆造成顯著差異，而 考量因素之評定與消費意願亦具有顯著差異；另外，運用多元尺度法進行 認知定位分析，指出日本民眾對於台灣、南韓、泰國及新加坡四國之認知 定位的差異，並提出訴求、改善、放棄及改變重點此四個構面之策略分析 與建議。最後依據研究分析結果，提供相關單位具體建議，冀以在台灣發 展醫療觀光的同時，作為適當之市場定位、市場區隔與行銷策略擬定之參 考依據。As an emerging industry in recent years, medical tourism (also called medical travel, health tourism or global healthcare) combines medical and tourism resources to let travelers from abroad receive medical procedures, including health examination, cosmetic surgeries, joint replacement, cardiac surgeries, etc. High costs, long waiting lists for certain procedures, the ease and affordability of international travel, and information transparency have all played a major role and drawn much attention. However, the number and the extent of factors influencing travelers to decide their medical tourism destinations are behind the scope of above. This study focused on Japanese people to analyze factors considered important for medical tourism toward Taiwan as well as three surrounding countries with more mature medical tourism industries (South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand). Questionnaires were used to obtain data from Japanese people by convenience sampling, with 557 valid responses and representing an effective response rate of 85.7 %. When it comes to medical tourism, there existed five major types of factors affecting Japanese decisions for medical tourism destination, namely hospitals, tourism destinations, tourism value, information and reputation, and country images. By applying Multivariate analysis of Variance (MANOVA), the results indicated that there were significant differences among Japanese with different demographic backgrounds (gender, occupation, and times of visiting Taiwan) in their perceived importance of different medical tourism attributes. Besides, with the use of multidimensional scaling (MDS), it revealed discrimination of Japanese perceptual positioning of South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, which in turns drove tactics analyses and advices about four dimensions: claim, improvement, change and withdrawal. Based on the research results of the current study, concrete suggestions were proposed to relative authorities in the hope to provide consultation for market positioning, market segmentation and marketing strategy as Taiwan developing medical tourism industry.