MEDICAL DISCOURSE AND PROMOTION IN THE FIELD OF MEDICAL TOURISM: PRAGMATIC APPROACH
This article investigates a new field of research for medical discourse - the sphere of medical tourism. Though travelling abroad for health benefits is not a recent concept, it has been gaining more momentum and media interest in the last decades. Spectacular growth in global media coverage is matched by the emergence of new destinations, expansion in established destinations, the emergence of medical tourism companies, the arrival of guidebooks, dedicated industry journals, medical tourism conventions and belating academic interest. The research emerged from the necessity of more profound analyses of the verbal and visual information posted on hospital websites offering medical help to foreigners as well as identification of its role in the patient’s decision - making process. The findings of the paper may contribute to the study of the role which promotion plays in the decision - making process of potential medical travellers, mainly concerning the practitioners/hospitals of a foreign country. Exploring various forms of medical tourism as well as different promotion tools generating trust we try to find out what influences the consumers’ attitude towards undertaking a medical treatment outside of their normal comfort zone.