Medical tourism communication of a Thai private hospital website

Journal article

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Publication Details

Author list: Carreon J.R., Todd R.W., Knox J.S.

Publisher: Equinox Publishing

Publication year: 2011

Journal: Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice (2040-3658)

Volume number: 8

Issue number: 2

Start page: 165

End page: 185

Number of pages: 21

ISSN: 2040-3658

eISSN: 2040-3666

URL: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85029359782&doi=10.1558%2fjapl.v8i2.165&partnerID=40&md5=cb18355c93a34960fe43ff51c6ea3e9e

Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)

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Abstract

The growth of medical tourism has led to a change in the customer base from local to international, presenting a challenge in how to communicate with these potential new patients. In this paper we use the tools of social semiotics and corpus linguistics to analyze two versions of a Thai private hospital website, one from 1998 before the growth of medical tourism and one from 2010 when roughly half of all patients at the hospital were international. The findings show that, although some differences can be attributed to developments in website capabilities, the 2010 website uses several strategies to build social relationships, involve the audience and engender trust with the goal of establishing the hospital's credibility for an international audience. ฉ 2013, EQUINOX PUBLISHING.

Keywords

Hospital communication, Hospital websites, Medical tourism, Social semiotics