The Process of Constructing a Health Tourism Destination Index
Open accessAbstract
The purpose of the study is to identify a set of key indicators with weightings for health tourism destinations by using an advanced analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, derived from the official, academic, and professional opinions of the experts. The AHP method allocated weightings to the evaluation criteria selected by the fifteen experts. After expert evaluations were conducted, the three dimensions and eleven sub-dimensions of the initial health tourism destination were obtained as follows: (1) special demands and indications—medical care, health promotion, and tourism and leisure; (2) natural environment—climate, air, water, and light; (3) leisure activities and general demands—sports, therapeutic activities, interactions with animals and plants, and diet. The results revealed that the dimensions of special demands and indications were given the most attention and that the sub-dimensions of sports promotion were the highest ranked by expert groups. The official and academic opinions suggested that health tourism destinations should focus on special demands and indications, while professionals tended to consider the natural environment as a primary concern. In particular, they considered that good air quality can help people release pressure, relax, activate lymphocytes, improve immune function, and enhance disease immunity. The health tourism destination index can contribute to the overall strategic planning process by identifying improvements in activities and enhancing competitiveness in health tourism management by using benchmarking to further improve tourists’ experience and satisfaction.
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- Authors
- Lee, C.-W., & Li, C.
- Affiliations
- Yango University (CN)
- National Taiwan Normal University (TW)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Ching
- ORCID
- Li, Ching
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2019-11-19
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 4579
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6888581
- OpenAlex
- W2991653333
- Cited by
- 58
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 4
- FWCI
- 7.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Global Healthcare and Medical Tourism
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research
- Social Sciences › Demography › Migration, Aging, and Tourism Studies
- Keywords
- medical tourism, expert opinion, analytic hierarchy process, air quality, natural environment, health promotion, health care, sports promotion, destination competitiveness, benchmarking
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Health Promotion, Humans, Leisure Activities, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Health Behavior, Guidelines as Topic, Medical Tourism
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