Abstract
Since 2008, government and private hospitals, recognizing the growth potential of specialization in certain medical procedures, started to promote Portugal as a medical tourism destination. As a result, the country is internationally recognized in areas such as oncology, neuroscience, immunology, nanomedicine, and regenerative medicine, and as having an internationally accredited modern healthcare network based on innovation in therapeutic processes and products, qualified professionals, and state-of-the-art equipment. However, previous literature suggests that the lack of cooperation between the stakeholders is major obstacle to international performance. Moreover, the pandemic has caused restrictions to international travels, contributing to the decrease of demand for medical tourism. Thus, this paper analyzes the evolution of the competitiveness of the medical tourism supply during the pandemic. Using an unbalanced panel of 157 private hospitals, collected from SABI for 2011 to 2020, we calculated four performance indicators: market share, return on investment, productivity and talent retention. Results point to the possession of key factors to ensure the success and development of a consolidated supply of medical tourism. The paper makes recommendations on the strategies to increase competitiveness of medical tourism supply.
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This research was financed by National Funds of the FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project UIDB/04928/2020 and under the Scientific Employment Stimulus—Institutional Call CEECINST/00051/2018.
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Santos, E., Moreira, J., Castanho, R.A., Carvalho, M., Martins, S. (2023). Competitiveness of the Medical Tourism Supply in Portugal. In: Carvalho, J.V., Abreu, A., Liberato, P., Peña, A. (eds) Advances in Tourism, Technology and Systems. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 345. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-0337-5_1
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