Aspects of Marketing in Dental Tourism—Factor of Sustainable Development in Romania

Oltean, Flavia Dana; Gabor, Manuela Rozalia; Stăncioiu, Aurélia-Felicia; Kardos, Mihaela; Kiss, Marta; Marinescu, Roxana Cristina

doi:10.3390/su12104320

Open AccessArticle

Aspects of Marketing in Dental Tourism—Factor of Sustainable Development in Romania

by

Flavia Dana Oltean

¹,

Manuela Rozalia Gabor

^1,*

,

Aurélia-Felicia Stăncioiu

²,

Mihaela Kardos

¹,

Marta Kiss

¹ and

Roxana Cristina Marinescu

³

¹

Economic Sciences Department, “George Emil Palade” University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology of TârguMureș, Faculty of Economics and Law, 540139 TîrguMureș, Romania

²

Faculty of Marketing, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010374 Bucharest, Romania

³

Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Craiova, 200585 Craiova, Romania

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 4320; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104320

Submission received: 25 April 2020 / Revised: 17 May 2020 / Accepted: 20 May 2020 / Published: 25 May 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marketing in Tourism and Sustainable Development)

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Abstract

Dental tourism is a growing and emerging phenomenon that is becoming more attractive to patients due to its potential for decreased expenses, increased convenience, and immediacy of treatment. The necessity for travel is the primary motivation for seeking dental treatment due to the successful cooperation between tourism and healthcare. While dental tourism has been largely researched from the perspective of the patient, our research is the first research to apply a concomitant approach on dental clinics and tourism agencies. The aim of our study wasto provide comprehensive empirical evidence from the perspective of the dental clinics and tourism agencies in Romanian dental tourism. We used a representative sampling with an online questionnaire on 160 dental clinics and 32 tourism agencies. The results indicate that both entities have small amounts of information, but they are interested in investing, promoting, and creating a partnership to create a sustainable industry of dental tourism. Dental tourism could strongly contribute to the country’s image and help to prolong the seasonality of tourism activity by enhancing the strategic marketing of dental clinics and tourism agencies toward sustainable health tourism.

Keywords: medical tourism; dental tourism; Romania; dental clinics; tourism agencies; sustainable tourism; marketing

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MDPI and ACS Style

Oltean, F.D.; Gabor, M.R.; Stăncioiu, A.-F.; Kardos, M.; Kiss, M.; Marinescu, R.C. Aspects of Marketing in Dental Tourism—Factor of Sustainable Development in Romania. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4320. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104320

AMA Style

Oltean FD, Gabor MR, Stăncioiu A-F, Kardos M, Kiss M, Marinescu RC. Aspects of Marketing in Dental Tourism—Factor of Sustainable Development in Romania. Sustainability. 2020; 12(10):4320. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104320

Chicago/Turabian Style

Oltean, Flavia Dana, Manuela Rozalia Gabor, Aurélia-Felicia Stăncioiu, Mihaela Kardos, Marta Kiss, and Roxana Cristina Marinescu. 2020. "Aspects of Marketing in Dental Tourism—Factor of Sustainable Development in Romania" Sustainability 12, no. 10: 4320. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104320

APA Style

Oltean, F. D., Gabor, M. R., Stăncioiu, A.-F., Kardos, M., Kiss, M., & Marinescu, R. C. (2020). Aspects of Marketing in Dental Tourism—Factor of Sustainable Development in Romania. Sustainability, 12(10), 4320. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104320

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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