Development of public’s role in Thailand medical tourism driven through public-private partnerships

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the confirmatory factors of Public-Private
Partnerships (PPPs) in medical tourism and to propose guidelines for the
public sector’s role in driving medical tourism through PPPs. A mixed-method
approach was employed, utilizing Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) in a
quantitative study to validate the components of PPPs in medical tourism.
The sample for this study comprised 220 health tourism operators and small
entrepreneurs involved in health and tourism-related activities within the area.
An in-depth interview protocol with semi-structured, open-ended questions
was applied to gather insights from 10 key informants. These informants
included executives from health and tourism agencies, health and tourism
business operators, and scholars specializing in public policy and PPPs. The
questionnaire used in this research was developed based on a thorough literature
review and tested for reliability through a pilot study. The overall reliability of
the questionnaire was confirmed with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.951.
Quantitative data were analyzed using Social Science software packages.
Descriptive statistics, such as frequency, mean, and standard deviation, along
with inferential statistics like CFA were applied. The results of the quantitative
analysis confirmed that the seven components of the PPPs model in health
tourism aligned with the empirical data. Furthermore, the qualitative findings
emphasized that the government should prioritize promoting medical tourism
for healthcare purposes, modernization of laws and regulations, enhancing
capacity building, and strengthening responsible public agencies by addressing
the factors influencing PPPs in medical tourism.