Exploring the challenges for medical tourism in the United Arab Emirates during the COVID 19 pandemic era: A stakeholder perspective

Purpose: This paper explores medical tourism development challenges in the UAE pre and during COVID-19. Medical tourism is becoming a dynamic, a rapidly growth area, and an engine of economic growth. Study Design/Methodology: In-depth interviews were conducted with medical tourism professionals. Fourteen medical tourism stakeholders were interviewed from 1st January to 31st January 2020. The qualitative thematic analysis was applied on medical tourism challenges pre-and during-pandemic Findings: The major themes indicated concerns for medical tourism in the UAE including higher medical services costs, shortage of highly qualified medical expertise. The emerging themes were related to challenges of COVID-19 on and strategies to attract medical tourists. Originality/Value: This study contributes towards: (1) the theory of medical tourism, (2) the dearth of studies in the UAE, and (3) the importance of medical tourism in today’s tourism industry There are theoretical and practical implications for medical tourism stakeholders to attract inbound medical tourists to the UAE from other countries during COVID 19 and post-pandemic situation.