Exploring the potential and scope for medical tourism opportunities in Malta

Abstract

Motivation: Medical tourism is a phenomenon that sees entire populations travel on foreign lands to receive medical treatment, often coupling care with conventional holidaymaking. The research is motivated by the fact that tourism experts have long declared that Malta needs to focus on niche tourism markets to spread tourists over an entire calendar year. Furthermore, little academic research exists about the topic of health or medical tourism in Malta. Problem Statement: The main objective of this study is to reveal the potential and scope for medical tourism opportunities on the Maltese islands. The aim is to discover the current situation of this market, the preparation of the country to address the needs of this market and to examine hindrances and prospects that work against or in favour of this niche. Approach: Through a qualitative exploratory research, twelve purposively selected research informants holding different industry roles have been interviewed to provide deep insights about medical tourism in Malta. Secondary data enriches and validates the findings. Results: Findings reveal that Malta faces an array of barriers that seriously hinder the potential of this multi-billion niche. Barriers range from regular international competitiveness issues like expensive prices and extend to complexities of the human nature that prevent doctors and patients from relating together effectively and powerful entities from co-operating serenely with each other. Conclusions: It was concluded that Malta has to engage into a series of corrective actions to lay the grounds for success in the medical tourism market. Dental tourism may have the potential to gain ground in the short-term, however the wider medical tourism requires hard work and strategic adjustment of which the benefits can be reaped only in the long term.