ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ON DESTINATION CHOICE AND REVISIT INTENTIONS: A STUDY OF FOREIGN MEDICAL TOURISTS IN INDIA

Abstract

Past research has established the application of social media in tourism and hospitality in light of the growing importance of social media in both travelers' decision-making and tourism operations and management. Despite the increasing use of social media marketing as an avenue to inform, educate and answer queries to international patients through articles, blog posts and podcasts, there is little empirical evidence for the effect of social media marketing influencing medical tourists destination choice and revisit intentions. This study addresses these issues by providing empirical support, suggesting that social media communication play crucial role in promoting India as a medical tourist destination. Exploratory qualitative (semi-structured personal interviews) and quantitative (self report survey) methods were employed to test the formulated hypotheses. Results show that social media advertising has a significant influence on media tourists’ destination choices and decisions. The results provided strong evidence that social media content has significant impact on medical tourists’ cognitive, affective and behavioral attitudes towards Indian medical tourism as destination and revisit intentions. Theoretical and managerial implications of the research are discussed.