ENTREPRENEURIAL TOOLS AND NEW APPROACHES IN MEDICAL TOURISM

MARINA COVALENCO (DOBROVOLSCHI)
, Transylvania University of Brasov, Romania
ORCID: 0009-0005-6408-9539
Email: marina.covalenco@unitbv.ro

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24818/cike2025.09

Pages: 78–87

📄 Download PDF

Abstract

Abstract: The healthcare tourism, which concerns medical tourism along with health tourism, is a growing industry in the context of current business globalization. Many of the areas of wellness and health are widespread, though a handful of individuals are practically inaccessible due to social economics and polities. The patients can sometimes be considered tourists as well, especially when they have foreign individuals who are in the same area for health purposes. Thus, this paper described the profiling and pricing strategies of entrepreneurs as participants, helping the marketing model reach the ambitious objectives of product innovation and competitive advantage in creating new products for health tourists. Since the marketing strategy is based on reaction, the proposed objectives comprise a pivotal focus on a co-creation platform. The academic specifications exert great rigor on scholarly contributions concerning the tools and enactments that apply to entrepreneurship. Furthermore, scholars support these by comparing entrepreneurial models and hype leadership in the medical tourism sector, from November 2024 through March 2025. Average selling plans consider responsive web design with features such as AI chat assistance, federal telemedicine content with assets helps, and real-time online confirmation.

Keywords: medical tourism, marketing strategies, health tourism, medical tourism providers, medical entrepreneurial tools

JEL Classification: I11, I12, I18, L83

References

  1. 1. Ayobami Raji, M. et al., 2024. Digital Marketing in Tourism: a review of practices in the USA and Africa.
    International Journal of Applied Research in Social Sciences, 6(3), pp. 393–408.
    2. Azmi, K.M. & Awang, K.W. (2012). Sustainable tourism development and stakeholders’ networking: A case
    study on medical tourism in Malaysia. Kuala-Lumpur, Malaysia, s.n.
    3. Firza, N., et al. (2024). Spatial Analysis to Investigate the Relationship Between Tourism and Wellbeing in
    Italy. Social Indicators Research, Volume 175, pp. 1027–1043.
    4. Frikha, M., Mhiri, M., Zarai, M., Gargouri, F., 2016. Using TMT Ontology in a Trust-Based Medical Tourism
    Recommender System. Agadir, s.n.
    5. Gartner, W. (1994). Image Formation Process. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing,, 2(2-3), pp. 191-216.
    6. GlobalHealthcareAccreditation (2023). Global Healthcare Accreditation. [Online]

    Available at: https://www.globalhealthcareaccreditation.com/news/health-tourism-exploring-the-industry-
    types-and-top-destinations

    [Accessed 2024].
    7. GWI (2025). The Global Wellness Economy: Country Rankings. Data 2019-2023, s.l.: s.n.
    8. Haller A. P., Tacu-Harsan, G.D. (2021). Causes of Sustainable Tourism Resilience in Central and Eastern

    Annual International Scientific Conference
    “Competitiveness and Innovation in the Knowledge Economy”

    September 26-27, 2025
    Chisinau, Republic of Moldova

    Europe. The Case of Three Countries: Romania, Bulgaria, and Poland. s.l., SCIENDO.
    9. HealthTourismStatistics, (2018). HealthTourism. [Online]
    Available at: https://www.health-tourism.com/medical-tourism/statistics/
    [Accessed 2025].
    10. Hudson, S. & Li, X. (2012). Domestic Medical Tourism: A Neglected Dimension of Medical Tourism
    Research. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 21(3), pp. 227–246.
    11. Illario M, et al. (2019). Health Tourism: An Opportunity for Sustainable Development. Translational
    Medicine@UniSa, Official Journal of Medical School of the University of Salerno, 19(Jan-Jun), pp. 109–
    115.
    12. Ionescu-Feleaga, L. et al., 2022. The Impact of Digitalization on Happiness: A European Perspective.
    Mathematics, 10(15), p. 2766.
    13. Jebbouri, A. et al. (2022). Impact of Destination Image Formation on Tourist Trust: Mediating Role of Tourist
    Satisfaction. Frontiers in Psychology, 13(April).
    14. Ji, X., Chen, J., & Zhang, H. (2024). Smart city construction empowers tourism: mechanism analysis and
    spatial spillover effects—Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Volume 11, p. 1210.
    15. Kaushik, D. & Rustagi, A. (2020). Medical tourism: A global industry. Journal of Statistics & Management
    Systems, 23(7), pp. 1241–1249.
    16. Kavoura, A., et al. (2023). Strategic Innovative Marketing and Tourism. 10th ICSIMAT ed. Ionian Islands,
    Greece: Springer.
    17. Khan, M.J., Chelliah, S., Haron, M.S. (2016). Medical tourism destination image formation process: A
    conceptual model. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 9(2), pp. 134–143.
    18. Layard, R. (2024). Wellbeing policy: what lessons from the Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman?. Economics
    Observatory, 18 November.
    19. Lemmi, E., Deri, M.G. (2020). New Model for the ‘Tourism Renaissance’: the Case Study of the Tuscan
    Village of San Pellegrino in Alpe. Almatourism – Journal of Tourism, Culture and Territorial Development,
    11(22).
    20. Mainil, T., et al. (2017). Health tourism in the EU: a general investigation, European Union: TRAN
    Committee, Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies.
    21. Medhekar, A., Wong, H.Y., Hall, J. (2015). Innovation in Medical Tourism Service Marketing: A Case of
    India. HOSPITALITY, TRAVEL, AND TOURISM: CONCEPTS, METHODOLOGIES, TOOLS, AND
    APPLICATIONS, pp. 1587–1604.
    22. MercureHealthcareInternational, (2023). Reinventing Medical Tourism Marketing: Reclaiming Brand
    Narrative & Embracing Authenticity. LinkedIn, 26 June.

    23. Moghavvemi, S., Ormond, M., et al. (2017). Connecting with prospective medical tourists online: A cross-
    sectional analysis of private hospital websites promoting medical tourism in India, Malaysia, and Thailand.

    Tourism Management, Volume 58, pp. 154–163.
    24. Nechita, F., et al. (2019). Projected Destination Images Versus Visitor-Generated Visual Content in Brasov,
    Transylvania. In: Kavoura, A., Kefallonitis, E., Giovanis, A. (eds) Strategic Innovative Marketing and
    Tourism. s.l., Springer.
    25. Portas Ruiz, E. (2022). YouTube, the Attention Economy, and Digital Audience Interest in Sponsored ASMR
    Videos. The Anahuac Journal, 22(2), pp. 12–41.
    26. Sadeh, E., & Garkaz, M. (2019). Interpretive structural modeling of quality factors in both medical and
    hospitality services in the medical tourism industry. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, pp. 253–267.
    27. Setyaningsih, S. et. al. (2024). Challenges and opportunities in sustainability reporting: a focus on small and
    medium enterprises (SMEs). Cogent Business & Management, 11(1).
    28. Shaygani, F., et al. (2023). Investigating the quality of Iranian hospitals’ websites and their association with
    the Province’s share of medical tourism. BMC Research Notes, Volume 16, p. 332.

    29. Stewart, D. (2015). The handbook of persuasion and social marketing. s.l.:Library of Congress Cataloging-
    in-Publication Data.

    30. Van Doorn, M., et al. (2023). Digital Happiness. The Synthetic Generation, s.l.: s.n.
    31. Vong, C., et al. (2021). Health-Related Crises in Tourism Destination Management: A Systematic Review.
    Sustainability, 13(24).
    32. Zarei, A., Feiz. D., Minbashrazgah, M.M., Maleki, F. (2021). Factors influencing selection of medical tourism
    destinations: A special niche market. International Journal of Healthcare Management, 13 (Supplement), pp.
    192–198.

Scroll to Top