The Overall Perception of Telemedicine and Intention to Use Telemedicine Services: A comparison between frequent travelers and non frequent travelers

Abstract

With the development of new technology such as Internet and telecommunication, telemedicine has become a new alternative for potential users to get quick access to medical services regardless of the geographical limitation. The purpose of this study is to understand the potentials of using telemedicine and the possibility of applying telemedicine into tourism industry by comparing the differences on intention to use between frequent and non-frequent traveler groups. Six factors, efficiency, financial costs, reliability, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and interaction are identified to form the overall service perception, and the relationships between such perception and intention to use were tested using SEM. The results show that frequent travelers have higher perceptions and hence intention to use telemedicine which provides evidence for tourism companies such as hotels to incorporate telemedicine as a value-added service.