New Evidence of the Determining Factors of Medical Tourism in the United Arab Emirates

Medical tourism provides essential advantages for destinations. On the other hand, the knowledge of developing competitive medical tourism destinations is still limited. This study proposes a conceptual framework on novel ways of sustaining the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Vision 2020 concerning the existing models on behavior. In the current study, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is utilized along with the Finance, System, and Connection (FSC) model. The data was collected with the aid of a questionnaire. As such, the study employs finance, system, and connections variables that are commonly adopted in testing medical tourism development. The designed model incorporates three critical factors that have remained the focal points in the world of medical tourism. Hence, the results reveal the empirical evidence that the finance, system, and the connection factors significantly foster the growth of tourist arrivals in Dubai. Moreover, the medical tourism infrastructure is expected to bring significant improvement in the economy of Dubai. By employing the SMART PLS (partial least square) software package, the structural analysis model affirms the robustness of the results. Besides, the thesis presents the policy implications for the stakeholders in the health sector, the tourism sector, and the government.