• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.137-143
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• 2009

1. Objective : This study aims to evaluate the medical tourism structures in countries with prosperous medical tourism industry such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and India in order ro propose optimal strategies that can promote the medical tourism in Korea. 2. Methods : All pertinent literature concerning medical tourism directly and indirectly were assessed, and reviews of medical tourism strategies found in various countries were evaluated. 3. Results : Evaluation of related literature reveals that medical tourism is a recent burgeoning industry that has grown In market size considerably in the last five to ten years. Also, it shows that oriental medicine is a highly likely candidate amidst the various medical fields for attraction foreign patients. 4. Conclusion : The Korean government should support and install appropriate legal and administrative bodies in order to attract medical tourists; Korea-specific medical tourism programs (ie. traditional Korean medicine package tours) should be developed in order to attract medical tourists from the western world and the middle-east. In addition, low-price policy of medical tourism is not a proper strategies for the competition against advanced medical tourism destinations such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and India. Differentiated medical tourism package such as oriental medical tourism program rather than provision of low-price policy seems to be more effective strategy for the medical tourism in Korea. Future studies on strategies for promoting medical tourism should focus on how foreigners recognize traditional Korean medicine, what diagnostic approach might be appealing to them and how the legal system concerning the medical procedures may be altered and modified.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2018

Purpose - With the worldwide aging problem and the development of globalization, customers prefer to seek affordable medical services with the higher quality overseas. This new trend has urged some destination countries to improve their services for the more competitive advantages over other countries. Literature research indicate that medical quality and cost may be the key factors influencing global patients' decisions. In the international environment, however, medical tourism destinations are selected due to cultural similarity between the hosting country and the customers' own country. The more similarity perceived between the two countries leads foreign patients to choose the considering country as the destination for medical tourism. However, little research has been conducted on this topic. Thus, we empirically investigate how cultural similarity influences Chinese medical customers' choice of the destinations. We also consider the factors related to medical competency and travel attribute which might affect customers' decisions along with some moderating roles of disease types. Research design, data, and methodology - We proposed a research model in order to confirm the relations among different variables of cultural similarity, medical competency, travel attractiveness, disease types, and destination choice. The questionnaire survey is processed in the more economically developed regions of China such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Jiangsu. Conditional logit regression is applied to analyze the data of 881. Results - Results indicate that cultural similarity is the important predictor of Chinese customers' decision to select a medical country. However, the effects of cultural similarity vary according to the disease types. We also find that medical competency and travel attractiveness influence their decisions with the moderating role of disease types. Conclusions - Cultural similarity is the important factor that influences Chinese potential medical tourists' decisions to select a destination. Marketing managers should consider the effects of cultural similarity when developing strategies for attracting Chinese medical tourists. Since medical competency and travel attractiveness are still the critical key elements for them to evaluate the destination countries, it is necessary to continuously improve medical service quality and facilities. The results also recommend that medical managers should sharpen their marketing strategies by segmenting Chinese potential customers in terms of disease types.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.297-303
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• 2021

The performance of the retail industry in a country, which simultaneously reflects the demand for retail space, is significantly influenced by the macroeconomic environment of said country. However, in the case of Malaysia, studies regarding this issue are limited. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the macroeconomic determinants of the demand for retail space in shopping centers in Malaysia through the study of six variables: per capita income, private expenditure, inflation rate, interest rate, total population, and the number of tourists arrival. The nexus between these variables and the demand for retail space in shopping centers were examined by cointegration and causality tests, and regression analysis using quarterly data for the period 1993Q1 to 2016Q4. The results from bivariate cointegration tests indicate that inflation rate, interest rates, population size, and the number of tourists arrival have significant long-run relationships with the demand for retail space of Malaysian shopping centers. Meanwhile, the Granger causality tests show that only population size can cause the demand for shopping centers' retail space. Finally, the results from the regression analysis revealed that income per capita, private expenditure, interest rates, and population are the variables that significantly influence the demand for the retail space of the Malaysian shopping centers.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1517-1523
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• 2016

The global medical tourism industry including Asian market has been activating recently. That is as medical tourists are motivated to seek the higher quality of healthcare with lower costs, as well as of travel. The consumers in this field tend to need customized services of medical tourism. It is needed that the consumers get customized information on medical services and traveling, the clinics and hospitals resolve the issues of offering translation and luring medical tourists from overseas, and the guides, who offer tour and translation service, provide the consumers and the clinics with customized services so that they get the services needed for one another. This research studies the Offline to Online, called O2O, matching platform based on global clinics, which connects medical facilities, patients, and guides for traveling and language services. It presents the customized marketing plans by utilizing customers' experiences from medical services and traveling they use.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.166-171
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• 2024

Recently, there has been an increasing trend in the role of social media in tourism marketing. We analyze changes in tourism marketing trends using tourism marketing keywords through social media networks. The aim is to understand marketing trends based on the analyzed data and effectively create, maintain, and manage customers, as well as efficiently supply tourism products. Data was collected using web data from platforms such as Naver, Google, and Daum through TexTom. The data collection period was set for one year, from December 1, 2022, to December 1, 2023. The collected data, after undergoing refinement, was analyzed as keyword networks based on frequency analysis results. Network visualization and CONCOR analysis were conducted using the Ucinet program. The top words in frequency were 'tourists,' 'promotion,' 'travel,' and 'research.' Clusters were categorized into four: tourism field, tourism products, marketing, and motivation for visits. Through this, it was confirmed that tourism marketing is being conducted in various tourism sectors such as MICE, medical tourism, and conventions. Utilizing digital marketing via online platforms, tourism products are promoted to tourists, and unique tourism products are developed to increase city branding and tourism demand through integrated tourism content. We identify trends in tourism marketing, providing tourists with a positive image and contributing to the activation of local tourism.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.107-135
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• 2016

Medical tour can be said to be a new high added-value tour industry of 21st century. The development of varied and distinguished medical tour products by each country will further vitalize the medical tour industry. As the interest in such medical tour increases, it is necessary to analyze the demand and interests of tourists accurately and prepare medical tour products to be provided in order to develop and promote medical tour products. The government considers the medical tour industry as an industry with high expected effects in job creation through promotion of experts in global healthcare industry and national economy development through high added-value creation, and has expanded aid policies in medical tour field with improvement of medical tour immigration system, one-stop service system for medical tourists, and medical tour labor force promotion system. Nevertheless, there are disputes between foreign patients and medical tour inviting businesses, along with medical accident disputes between foreign patients and medical staff and disputes with those working in the tourism industry. This article reviews the types of disputes occurring around the inviting businesses related to medical tours and tried to review the resolutions. Through this, it was found that medical tour inviting businesses have the responsibility to connect the mediated benefits and risks and also the responsibility to process the tasks. Thus, in case dispute occurs due to passive actions from establishing agency agreement to active mediation results, it is difficult to escape the liabilities. Also, in a medical tour agency contract, the inviting business must be aware that it bears the responsibility to explain and advise the details on benefits and risks to foreign patients. The "Guide to arbitration system for resolution of medical disputes with foreign patients" by Korea Health Industry Development Institute Act presents a method to resolve disputes according to the [laws on medical accident damage relief and medical dispute arbitration] in case a dispute due to medical accidents occurs to foreign patients when the foreign patients prepare diagnosis agreement, Whether such method is sufficient to protect foreign patients, however, is thought to require discussions from more diverse perspectives. In order to vitalize medical tourism, the development of diverse products is also important, but the countermeasures against related disputes should also be prepared. Such is expected to contribute to a greater advancement based on trust of foreign medical tourists alongside excellent medical technologies.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.39-51
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to find out the relationship among self-efficacy, emotional labor, organizational commitment and job satisfaction of medical tourism employees. This survey was conducted from March 2 to March 31, 2018 and targeting medical tourism employees who work at hospitals, travel agencies, medical tourism agencies and consulting firms in Seoul. 282 questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 12.0 and AMOS 18.0. The result of this study is as follows. First, self-efficacy positively influenced on emotional labor and organizational commitment. Second, self-efficacy positively influenced on all job satisfaction factors as like job itself satisfaction, salary/promotion satisfaction and relationship satisfaction. Third, deep acting factor of emotional labor positively influenced on job itself satisfaction and relationship satisfaction. Forth, job itself satisfaction and relationship satisfaction positively influenced on organizational commitment. These research findings can be summarized as follows. Medical tourism employees of hospitals, travel agencies, medical tourism agencies and consulting firms have to be supported greatly to improve their own job competency and job qualifications. Second, medical tourism organizations try to understand the real emotion of medical tourism employees when they are dealing with medical tourists. Third, medical tourism employees have to be recognized their job performance and provided suitable incentives for the results. The findings of this study provide practical implications about strategical human resource management of medical tourism agencies. Moreover, it will be useful for hospitals and government officials to establish a management framework in medical tourism industry.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.438-447
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• 2012

The objectives of this research are: to provide fundamental data for tourism policy and investigate medical tourism attributes by IPA(Importance-Performance Analysis) to attract Japanese medical tourists to Korea. Utilizing Japanese medical tourists as subjects of inquiry, this study evaluated the importance of medical tourism selection attributes and the rate at which these attributes were performed. Consequently, this study deduced 'convenience, service quality, differentiation, approximation' factors by factor analysis as well as the ranking among each selection attributes using T-test. The importance-performance analysis showed 'Concentrate Here' in quadrant I, 'Keep up the Good Work' in quadrant II, 'Low Priority' in quadrant III and 'Possible Overkill' in quadrant IV. The results show that "Concentrate Here" part in quadrant I is reservation procedure rapidity and information system simplicity. This means that these attributes are very important but they indicate low performance. Thus, concentration among tourism managers should be focused along these attributes. The study, then, suggests that employee who speaks Japanese fluently should be arranged during reservation procedure. Furthermore, Japanese class should become mandatory during basic employee training to improve reservation procedure rapidity. Moreover, clinic websites should concentrate on accessibility of Japanese users in such a way that they can consult their needs on line. Finally, managers should find diverse ways to bring about good service rapidly and conveniently.

• International Journal of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.58-63
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• 2017

The sound we hear is transmitted through the atmosphere. However, both the sound we want to hear and the surrounding sound are mixed, and noise is generated, and the sound is not clearly transmitted due to factors such as distance. In particular, in closed spaces like buildings, it is often difficult to hear sounds from outside because of the sound of reflection. People with hearing impairments, such as the elderly and the deaf, have a hard time hearing the sounds they want to hear. Thus, we are developing a hearing aid that can detect radio waves. To this end, we propose the development of a hearing aid that uses FM radio and Bluetooth. These devices are expected to be useful not only for the elderly and the deaf but also in situations where information is transmitted to a large number of people, such as students and tourists, in a large space. The main purpose of this device is to enable users to hear sound correctly without blind spots.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.367-379
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• 2014

Background: Over the last decade, medical tourism industry has grown in Korea. Especially the number of Mongolian medical tourists has increased rapidly. Therefore, the Mongolia is one of the targets for Korea medical tourism. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of destination image and expected attributes of medical services on Mongolian's intention to use Korean medical tourism service. Methods: This study empirically collected survey data from Mongolian lived in Mongolia. The study analyzed the data using a PLS model. Results: Our results are as follows. First, the country image didn't significantly have causal effects on expected medical service quality and perceived risk. Second, tourism image (e.g., entertainment, economic feasibility, and local convenience) has significantly causal effects on expected medical service quality and perceived risk. However, tourist site as tourism image didn't significantly have causal effects on expected medical service quality and perceived risk. Third, medical image made a statistically significant effect on expected medical service quality and perceived risk. Fourth, the expected medical service quality showed a significant effect on intention to use Korean medical tourism service. Fifth, the perceived risk of medical tourism showed a significant effect on the reliability of medical tourism, but didn't show a significant effect on the intention to use Korean medical tourism service. Finally, the reliability has a significant effect on the intention to use Korean medical tourism service. Conclusion: From our empirical results, this study concluded that as a strategy attracting Mongolian patients, it is more effective to strengthen Korean hospital image and tourism image than Korean country image.