Advancing Medical Tourism in the United Arab Emirates: Toward a Sustainable Health Care System

Abstract

Medical tourism provides an essential advantage for destinations. On the other hand, the knowledge of developing competitive medical tourism destinations is still limited. This study models a conceptual framework on novel ways of sustaining the United Arab Emirate (UAE) Vision 2020 with reference to the existing models on behavior. In the current study, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which is health-related, along with the Finance, System and connection (FSC) model, is employed. Using an empirically based methodology, the data for the investigation is collected with the aid of a questionnaire. As such, the study employs finance, system, and connections variables which are commonly adopted in testing medical tourism development. The designed model incorporates these three important factors that have remained the focal points in the world of medical tourism. Hence, the result reveals empirical evidence suggesting that the finance, system, and the connection factors significantly foster the growth of tourist arrivals in Dubai. Moreover, it predicates that the significant improvement in the economy of Dubai administrative government is likely to be connected with the development of its medical infrastructure. Additionally, by employing the use of SMART PLS (partial least square) software package, the structural analysis tests, like model fit, further affirms the robustness of the results. In addition, the study presents policy implication for the stakeholders in the health sector, tourism sector, and the government.