Female Medical Tourists' Enplanement Intentions and Airline Cabin Design in Developing Economies
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Dec 13, 2022
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Abstract
The future of medical tourism in Africa is tied to travel and aviation plays a key role in propelling tourism across borders. This study examined the influence of cabin design on the enplanement intentions of female medical tourists in Africa. Data were obtained using an online semi-structured bi-lingual questionnaire. The survey data were analysed with R software. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis and Sobel, Aroian, and Goodman tests for mediation showed that three elements of seat design (backrest, seat pitch and legroom) had both direct and indirect effects on enplanement intention. This calls for diligent attention and efforts by airlines to remodel aircraft and redefine their services as regards cabin comfort for female medical tourists. This would give the airline an edge over competitors. As a multidisciplinary study, it sets the path towards the revival of the future of travel and tourism in Africa, post-pandemic.
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References
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[5] Aviation Triad. 2017. The Brains behind Aircraft Cabin Design. https://www.aviationtriad.com/the-brains-behind-aircraft-cabin-design/ (accessed July 11, 2020).
[6] Azevedo, Daniel, Vincent Chin, Dinesh Khanna, Eduardo León, Kasey Maggard, Michael Meyer, David Michael, Burak Tansan, Peter Ullrich, Sharad Verma, and Jeff Walters. 2016. 2016 Global Challengers Report - Top Players in Emerging Markets. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/global-challengers (accessed July 24, 2020).
[7] Bond, Marybeth. 2019. Women Travel Statistics – 80% of all Travel Decisions Made by Women. https://gutsytraveler.com/women-travel-statistics/ (accessed July 12, 2020).
[8] Čeperković, Jelena, Šiljak, Marija & Đurađević, Marijana. 2017. Women entrepreneurship in function of improving tourist offer. Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education, 3-4: 73-83.
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[11] Fetscherin, Marc and Renee-Marie Stephano. 2016. The Medical Tourism Index: Scale Development and Validation. Tourism Management, 52: 539-556.
[12] Gilbert, David and Robin K. C. Wong. 2003. Passenger Expectations and Airline Services: A Hong Kong Based Study. Tourism Management, 24: 519-532.
[13] Gill, Harsimran and Neha Singh. 2011. Exploring the Factors that Affect the Choice of Destination for Medical Tourism. Journal of Service Science and Management, 4: 315-324.
[14] Hall, Ashley, Tobias Mayer, I. Wuggetzer, and P.R.N. Childs. 2013. Future Aircraft Cabins and Design Thinking: Optimization vs Win-Win Scenarios. Propulsion and Power Research, 2(2): 85–95.
[15] Han, Heesup. 2013. Effects of in-flight ambience and space/function on air travelers' decision to select a low-cost airline. Tourism Management, 37: 125–135. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2013.01.008
[16] Hao, Jocelyn and Chris O. S. Har. 2014. A Study of Preferences of Business Female Travellers on the Selection of Accommodation. Procedia – Social Behavioral Sciences, 14: 176-186.
[17] Hewlett, Sylvia. 2011. Why Women are the Biggest Emerging Market. Harvard Business Review, 3. https://www.hbr.org/2010/03/leverage-your-female-demograph (accessed August 17, 2020).
[18] Hoffman, K. Douglas and John E. G. Bateson. 2011. Service Marketing: Concepts, Strategies, & Cases. South-Western, USA: Cengage Learning.
[19] Hoyer, Wayne and Deborah J. Maclniss. 2010. Consumer Behavior 5th ed. South-Western: Cengage Learning.
[20] Hunt, Jennifer, and Truong, D. 2019. Low-fare flights across the Atlantic: Impact of low-cost, long-haul trans-Atlantic flights on passenger choice of Carrier. Journal of Air Transport Management, 75: 170-184.
[21] Idowu, E. O., and Adewole, O. A. 2015. Spectrum of neurosurgical complications following medical tourism: Challenges of patients without borders. African Health Science, 15: 240–245.
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[25] Kan, Viktoriya and Mukhopadhyay, B. Rick. 2022. The role of migration in women entrepreneurship and empowerment: Evidence from Nigeria. Journal of Women's Entrepreneurship and Education, 1-2: 187-212.
[26] Kurtulmusoglu, Feride, Galin F. Can, Fatma Pakdil, and Metehan Tolon. 2018. Does Gender Matter? Considering Gender Service in the Airline Industry. Journal of Air Transport Management: 70, 73.
[27] Kwok, See, Ahmad Jusoh, and Zainab Khalifah. 2016. The Influence of Service Quality on Satisfaction: Does Gender Really Matter? Intangible Capital, 12(2): 444-461.
[28] Liu, Jing, Suihuai Yu, and Jianjie Chu. 2019. The Passengers’ Comfort Improvement by Sitting Activity and Posture Analysis in Civil Aircraft Cabin. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2019: 1–10. doi:10.1155/2019/3278215.
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[30] Maheshwari, S. Animasahun, B. A. and Njokanma, O. F. 2012. International patients with congenital heart disease: What brings them to India? Indian Heart Journal, 64 (1): 50- 53.
[31] Manski, Charles. 1990. The Use of Intentions Data to Predict Behavior: A Best-case Analysis. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 85: 934-940.
[32] Nwankwo, Chike and Amechi H. Igweze. 2016. Extensions of Tests of Indirect Effect in Mediation Analysis. International Journal of Data Science and Analysis. 2(1): 1-6. doi: 10.11648/j.ijdsa.20160201.11.
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[34] Orji, V.N, Inyang, J.J., Akpan, J.S., Bassey, F.O. and Edodi, H. U. (2020). Nigerian Tourists’ Concerns Towards Medical Risks and Social Challenges. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 9(4): 612-625.
[35] Ryan, Thomas. 2013. Sample size determination and power. John Wiley and Sons.
[36] Stephano, R. M. and Fetscherin, M. 2016. The medical tourism index: Scale development and validation. Tourism Management, 52: 539-556.
[37] World Tourism Organization. 2017.UNWTO Annual Report 2016. Madrid, Spain: UNWTO.
[38] World Tourism Organization. 2019. Global Report on Women in Tourism – Second Edition. Madrid, Spain: UNWTO.
[39] Zhang, Benjamin. 2015. A new design for airplane seats could cause chaos in the skies. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/these-new-airplane-seats-could-cause-complete-chaos-in-the-skies-2015-8?r=US&IR=T (accessed July 10, 2021).