Diasporic medical tourism: where tourism meets migration and healthcare. Understanding its antecedents, behavioural intention and potential.

Abstract

This study focuses on diasporic medical tourism (DMT), an offshoot of migration-led tourism. There has been growing recognition of the significance of a diasporic dimension of medical tourism worldwide, yet little is known about these travellers, especially quantitatively. This paper examines the antecedents and behavioural intention of the DMT by applying the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in three European countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) among the Polish diaspora (n = 1,288), constituting one of the largest migrant populations in Europe. Structural Equation Modeling was applied, and the model explained 53% of the variance in behavioural intention (R²= .527, Q²= .392). All exogenous variables were statistically significant. The intention to undertake DMT was influenced by complex commercial and noncommercial motivational factors, mostly related to uncertainty avoidance and reliance on heuristics to overcome acculturative stress. “Committed” and “Contended” travellers accounted for 70%, indicating the significant potential of those “hidden” consumers. A profile of diasporic medical tourists was presented and compared to foreign medical tourists. This research explores practical implications and contributes to the research on diaspora tourism, medical tourism and the interrelation between tourism and migration, specifically in the European context, but also globally.