Caregiver-Centric Hospitality as a Driver of Destination Loyalty: A Quantitative Study in Chennai’s Medical Tourism Sector
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48165/pjhas.2026.12.1.4Keywords:
Caregiver-centric hospitality, medical tourism, destination loyalty, hospitality services, Chennai, international caregiversAbstract
Background: Medical tourism has experienced significant growth in recent years, positioning hospitality and tourism services as critical components of destination competitiveness. While existing studies largely focus on patients’ experiences, the role of caregivers accompanying international patients has received limited research, especially in medical tourism destinations. Objective: To inspect the impact of caregiver-centric hospitality dimensions, such as residential comfort, culinary autonomy, navigational and transport ease and linguistic and cultural support, that have a significant effect on destination loyalty among international medical attendants in Chennai. Methodology: A quantitative research design with a cross-sectional survey approach was used in this study. A structured questionnaire was administered through Google Forms to obtain the primary data. The questionnaire was distributed to 331 international medical attendants, from which 254 valid responses were used for analysis. The size was adequate as per Cochran’s formula. PLS-SEM was used for data analysis and to test the proposed hypotheses. Results: A strong explanatory power, with logistic hospitality dimensions, 86.6 % of variance was identified in destination loyalty (R²= 0.856). A significant statistical value was noted between all proposed relationships. Navigational and transportation ease emerged as the strongest predictor of destination loyalty (β= 0.321, p < 0.001), followed by culinary autonomy (β= 0.227, p= 0.021), residential comfort (β= 0.220, p= 0.044), and linguistic and cultural support (β= 0.215, p= 0.042). Conclusion: Caregiver-centric hospitality plays an important role in improving destination loyalty in medical tourism. Strengthening non-clinical support services for caregivers can improve destination competitiveness and long-term sustainability.References
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