MEDICAL TOURISM: ATTAINING COMPETITIVE EDGES THROUGH HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Intense competition is growing among players in the emergent medical tourism industry, given the lucrative returns and fringe benefits that the industry offers to a country. In the Southeast Asia region, destination countries are aggressively position to becoming medical tourism hubs to tap into the pie, escalating the competition. The need to stay competitive coupled with the austere customer- and service- orientation of the hospitality industry, have constantly put medical tourism industry and its sustainability to test. Hence, there is a dire need to attain differentiation and competitive edges to sustain in the industry. The root to medical tourism sustainability lies in the ability to condition its core competencies to be innovative towards challenges to breach diversity barriers, or risked to be shadowed or phased out. Human capital as the core and forerunner of any organisation, is a powerful resource in the hands of competent management and leadership, nevertheless, they can also be detrimental when managed casually. In light of this, medical tourism entities are collectively summoned to foster a dynamic approach in their human resource management (HRM) and leadership development as a competitive edge to sustain. Thus, the expansion and exploration on this proposed conceptual model will constitute favourable future directions for medical tourism.