Brand Hearsay Through the Narratives of International Medical Tourists: Scale Development Using a Mixed-Methods Approach
Keywords:
Health tourism, Brand Hearsay, International touristsAbstract
Brand Hearsay, from the perspective of international medical tourists, emerges from authentic and lived narratives communicated by these tourists, which reinforce the position of a medical destination at the international level through the transmission of trust and satisfaction. This study focuses on the perspectives of international medical tourists and examines the dimensions shaping Brand Hearsay from their viewpoint. The present study employed a mixed-methods (qualitative–quantitative) approach and was fundamental in terms of purpose. In the qualitative section, the statistical population consisted of experts and specialists with extensive experience in the field of health tourism in Iran, particularly professionals and experts working at the Health Tourism Department of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, the International Health Tourism Association of Iran, and the Office of Foreign Tourism Marketing and Development of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts. Fourteen participants were selected through purposive sampling. Data collection in the qualitative phase was conducted using semi-structured interviews. In the quantitative section, the statistical population consisted of international medical tourists visiting hospitals in Tehran. Based on Cochran’s formula, a sample of 384 participants was selected using convenience sampling, and data were collected through a questionnaire. The findings indicated that the dimensions shaping Brand Hearsay include formal dissemination sources, informal dissemination sources, and Brand Hearsay content. The components constituting formal dissemination sources include advertising, visual–textual brand elements, and information and communication resources. The components constituting informal dissemination sources include informal sources and media sources. Furthermore, the components constituting Brand Hearsay content can be categorized into those related to the tourism destination and those related to the health tourism brand.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Delaram Sharifi Limaei (Author); Mohammad Javad Taghipourian; Soheila Nazarpour, Ramzan Alizadeh (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
