Title: Enquiring the dental practitioners' perceptions about dental tourism: a phenomenological viewpoint

Authors: Ratinder Kaur; Jiwanjot Kaur Hira

Addresses: School of Management Studies, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India ' Department of Commerce, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, India

Abstract: India is emerging as one of the leaders in the medical tourism market and is also making its mark in the field of dental tourism - which is often regarded as a 'cousin' to medical tourism. This paper makes the use of qualitative research, where a phenomenological approach was followed with an objective of studying the perceptions of Indian dental practitioners with regard to dental tourism in India. The data was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with six Indian dentists practicing privately which were chosen by using purposive and snowball sampling. A thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted using the Atlas.ti software which uncovered various themes like behaviour of dental tourists, benefits of dental tourism, ethical issues, and initiatives needed for the progress of dental tourism as perceived by the dental practitioners in the sample. The paper has offered suggestions which can benefit multiple stakeholders like hospitals, corporates, government and dental practitioners that are involved in dental tourism market.

Keywords: medical tourism; dental tourism; medical tourism in India; dental tourism in India; dental practitioners; dentists; qualitative research; phenomenology; phenomenological approach; Atlas.ti; thematic analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/WREMSD.2021.114438

World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, 2021 Vol.17 No.2/3, pp.323 - 342

Received: 03 Jun 2019
Accepted: 13 Jan 2020
Published online: 21 Apr 2021 *

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