Identifying Cultural Challenges in Providing Medical Tourism Services in South Korea
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초록
The purpose of this study is to identify cultural challenges in Korean medical tourism and discover specific implementations which Korean service providers offer. This study conducted semi-structured face-to-face in-depth interviews with 28 of service suppliers of Korean medical tourism. The service providers face cultural barriers when translating conversations which require full medical knowledge as well as when medical tourists expect to receive services based on their home countries’ medical systems and care standards. In order to reduce identified language barriers, Korean medical tourism providers employ native speakers who can speak Korean and specialists learn other languages to converse with medical tourists directly. Moreover, the service providers are aware of other cultures with respect to cultures and they try to solve unexpected problems through conversation and communication with medical tourists. The services for Muslims, however, require improvements to satisfy medical tourists from Islamic countries such as Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and Dubai. This study generated results which are valuable for both academic and industry perspectives as the results have not previously been researched. Medical tourism representatives in other countries can consult the findings to overcome cultural challenges in providing medical tourism services.
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to identify cultural challenges in Korean medical tourism and discover specific implementations which Korean service providers offer. This study conducted semi-structured face-to-face in-depth interviews with 28 of service suppliers of Korean medical tourism. The service providers face cultural barriers when translating conversations which require full medical knowledge as well as when medical tourists expect to receive services based on their home countries’ medical systems and care standards. In order to reduce identified language barriers, Korean medical tourism providers employ native speakers who can speak Korean and specialists learn other languages to converse with medical tourists directly. Moreover, the service providers are aware of other cultures with respect to cultures and they try to solve unexpected problems through conversation and communication with medical tourists. The services for Muslims, however, require improvements to satisfy medical tourists from Islamic countries such as Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and Dubai. This study generated results which are valuable for both academic and industry perspectives as the results have not previously been researched. Medical tourism representatives in other countries can consult the findings to overcome cultural challenges in providing medical tourism services.
참고문헌 (45)
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