Medical tourism is a thriving industry. Many destinations now seek to attract more medical tourists. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is no exception. As one of the most important pillars of the UAE’s economy, tourism is considered a high priority. However, medical tourism in the UAE is still developing. This paper addresses the main challenges for medical tourism in the UAE and proposes methods to enhance its development. This research utilized qualitative analysis. Twelve professionals in medical tourism were interviewed to provide data. The data were then analyzed using NVivo 12 software. Our results indicate that the key barriers to medical tourism development in the UAE are high costs of medical tourism services, lack of marketing activities, lack of collaboration between medical and tourism service providers, and so forth. Although initiatives from the UAE government are very encouraging, more efficient medical care supply networks, tourism suppliers and intermediaries should be established to ensure its growth. This research could influence national tourism policies in the UAE as well as regional alliances in all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries.
The development of religious tourism in underdeveloped destinations is a quite complex, demanding, and challenging process. This study aims to address the issues related to the management of religious tourism destination and therefore contribute to establishing the professional management structure within the Old Royal Capital of Cetinje as a religious tourism destination. In order to facilitate future planning and organization inside and outside the destination, an integrated model of religious tourism development that can be applied in all the destinations in an early stage of their development or in undeveloped destinations is proposed. For the purpose of this paper, the attitudes of local people regarding the current development of religious tourism in the area of Cetinje (Montenegro) were explored. The total number of 161 residents was examined using a questionnaire method. The research results show that religious tourism is not well-developed in this area and therefore it is necessary to define precise instructions for developing a tourism product of this type. Based on the research findings, mission, vision, and strategic goals for the sustainable development of religious tourism in Cetinje were defined.
In the hotel industry, it is a well-known fact that, despite of quality and variety of services provided, there is a low probability that the guests will return. This research is focused on identifying the basic factors of the hotel offer, which could determine the influence on the correlation between the guests' satisfaction and the probability of their return. The objective of the article is to explore the relationship between the guests' satisfaction with the quality hotel services in total (including the tourist offer of the place) and the probability of his return to the same destination. The questionnaire method was applied in the survey, and the data were analysed based on factor analysis. Thereafter, the model for forecasting the probability of the guests returning to the destination was established, by using the example of Montenegrin tourism. The model represents a defined framework for the guest's decision-making process. It identifies two main characteristics of guest experiences: satisfaction and rated quality (of the destination's overall hotel service and tourist offer). The same model evaluates the impact of the above factors on the probability of the guests' returning to the same destination. The starting hypothesis was the existence of a high degree of correlation between the guests' satisfaction (with the destination's hotel services and tourist offer) and the probability of returning to the selected Montenegrin destinations. The research confirmed the above-mentioned hypothesis. The results have revealed that there are significant differences in perceived quality, i.e. satisfaction between the target groups of Eastern and Western European tourists.
JEL classification:L83.
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