A bibliometric study of medical tourism

Abstract

This bibliometric study analyzes 1535 publications from 1952 to 2020 on medical tourism. The aim of the study is to portray medical tourism publication trends from different perspectives such as the main subjects, word dynamics, authors’ originations and finally research gaps and future directions. The study shows that concepts like “perceived value” and “destination image” are among the emerging concerns in recent studies. The themes of research were grouped into six themes of marketing, economic & political, social & cultural, ethical, technological and governmental within these categories, factors affecting emotional aspects of tourists’ decision-making were found to be under-studies, compared to factors feeding the cognitive side of their choice of destinations.