The growth of international travel for purposes of medical treatment has been accompanied by increased academic research and analysis. This Handbook explores the emergence of medical travel and patient mobility and the implications for patients and hea

The Routledge Handbook of Health Tourism provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge overview of the philosophical, conceptual and managerial issues in the field of health tourism with contributions from more than 30 expert academics and practitioners from around the world. Terms that are used frequently when defining health tourism, such as wellbeing, wellness, holistic, medical and spiritual, are analysed and explored, as is the role that health and health tourism play in quality-of-life enhancement, wellbeing, life satisfaction and happiness. An overview is provided of health tourism facilities such as thermal waters, spas, retreats and wellness hotels and the various challenges inherent in managing these profitably and sustainably. Typologies are given not only of subsectors of health tourism and related activities but also of destinations, such as natural landscapes, historic townscapes or individual resources or attractions around which whole infrastructures have been developed. Attention is paid to some of the lifestyle changes that are taking place in societies which influence consumer behaviour, motivations and demand for health tourism, including government policies, regulations and ethical considerations. This significant volume offers the reader a comprehensive synthesis of this field, conveying the latest thinking and research. The text is international in focus, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study and will be an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in health tourism.

Transnational Mobility and Global Health spotlights the powerful and dynamic intersections of human movement, inequality, and health. The book explores the interacting political, economic, social, cultural, and climatic drivers of health and migration, proposing innovative ways to enhance global health and care provision in an era of transnational mobility. As health security continues to rise up the agenda in international politics, the book also analyses the political determinants of health and migration. Within the framework of key drivers of unequal mobilities, this book treats interconnected health and migration themes not covered elsewhere under one cover: health tourism, conflict-induced and other vulnerable-population movements, humanitarian crises, human rights, the health-development linkage, migrant health-care, and health-competency education. The book also considers global health vulnerabilities in the wake of climate change, and the biomedical, ethical, and governance challenges of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Finally, the book suggests ways of evaluating mobility-influenced health outcomes and equity impacts, and explores how the global circulation of health expertise could help to rectify care-provider shortages. The challenges to global health considered in this book are only likely to become more intense as the 21st-Century surge in transnational migration continues. Readers will gain interdisciplinary appreciation for the relevance of health for migration and of migration for global health. Researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers interested in individual and population health, sustainable development, and migration studies will find this book a useful and inspiring guide to contemporary global challenges.

The Routledge Handbook on Tourism in the Middle East and North Africa examines the importance of tourism as a historical, economic, social, environmental, religious and political force in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It highlights the ecological and resource challenges related to water, desert environments, climate change and oil. It provides an in-depth analysis of the geopolitical conditions that have long determined the patterns of tourism demand and supply throughout the region and how these play out in the everyday lives of residents and destinations as they attempt to grow tourism or ignore it entirely. While cultural heritage remains the primary tourism asset for the region as a whole, many new types of tourisms are emerging, especially in the Arabian Gulf region, where hyper-development is closely associated with the increasingly prominent role of luxury real estate and shopping, retail, medical tourism, cruises and transit tourism. The growing phenomenon of an expatriate workforce, and how its segregation from the citizenry creates a dual socio-economic system in several countries, is unmatched by other regions of the world. Many indigenous people of MENA keep themselves apart from other dominant groups in the region, although these social boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred as tourism, being one socio-economic force for change, has inspired many nomadic peoples to settle into towns and villages and rely more on tourists for their livelihoods. All of these issues and more shape the foundations of this book. This Handbook is the first of its kind to examine tourism from a broad regional and inclusive perspective, surveying a broad range of social, cultural, heritage, ecological and political matters in a single volume. With a wide range of contributors, many of whom are natives of the Middle East and North Africa, this Handbook is a vital resource for students and scholars interested in Tourism, Middle East Studies and Geography.

Through interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives, and with an emphasis on exploring patterns as well as distinct and unique conditions across the globe, this collection examines advanced and cutting-edge theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the health of urban populations. Despite the growing interest in global urban health, there are limited resources available that provide an extensive and advanced exploration into the health of urban populations in a transnational context. This volume offers a high-quality and comprehensive examination of global urban health issues by leading urban health scholars from around the world. The book brings together a multi-disciplinary perspective on urban health, with chapter contributions emphasizing disciplines in the social sciences, construction sciences and medical sciences. The co-editors of the collection come from a number of different disciplinary backgrounds that have been at the forefront of urban health research, including public health, epidemiology, geography, city planning and urban design. The book is intended to be a reference in global urban health for research libraries and faculty collections. It will also be appropriate as a text for university class adoption in upper-division under-graduate courses and above. The proposed volume is extensive and offers enough breadth and depth to enable it to be used for courses emphasizing a U.S., or wider Western perspective, as well as courses on urban health emphasizing a global context.

Health Care Social Work aims to directly empower health care social workers around the world by providing valuable new information about the breadth and depth of the profession's health care contributions, legislative and policy influences upon practice, and implications for future practice and growth in different nations. Written by scholars and practitioners of health care social work from around the world, chapters encourage comparative analysis of distant health care social work practice as a means of supporting meaningful change on a local level and contributing to public health in a way that transcends boundaries and makes a difference globally. Readers will gain an opportunity to examine their assumptions about health care social work practice and reflect meaningfully upon less familiar techniques and approaches as a way of prompting problem-solving with an expanded frame of reference.

It is an undisputed reality that the tourism industry in Asia is getting exposed to more innovative technologies than ever before. This proposed book provides the latest research in the application of innovative technology to the tourism industry, covering the perspectives, innovativeness, theories, issues, complexities, opportunities and challenges. This book, a blend of comprehensive and extensive effort by the contributors and editors, is designed to cover the application and practice of technology in tourism, including the relevant niches. This book focuses on the importance of technology in tourism. This also highlights, in a comprehensive manner, specific technologies that are impacting the tourism industry in Asia, as well as the constraints the industry is facing. The contents of this book deal with distinct topics, such as mobile computing, new product designs, innovative technology usages in tourism promotion, technology-driven sustainable tourism development, location-based apps, mobility, accessibility and so on. A good number of research studies have conducted outlining the contributions and importance of technologies in tourism, in general. However, the tourism industry of Asia so far has attracted very few researchers. Some contributions have been made but not sufficient. Considering the ongoing trend of technology application in the tourism industry in Asia, very few research attempts have been made aiming to explore diverse aspects. Tourism is expanding enormously across the world. which actually creates more demands for effective technologies. This book will be a reading companion, especially for tourism students in higher academic institutions. This book will also be read by the relevant policy planners and industry professionals. Apart from them, this book will be appreciated by expatriate researchers and researchers having keen interest in the Asian tourism industry.

This book shares the work of various scholars under the umbrella of quality of life in tourism and hospitality, including case studies showing best practice. The main goal of this volume is to provide a portfolio of selected activities from tourism and hospitality settings as best practices and examine how these best practices play a role in the well-being of various stakeholder groups, including tourists, residents of the host community, and the providers of tourism services. The book has 11 chapters and a subject index.

Millions of patients travel abroad every year, and the number of trips around the world to benefit from health services is increasing. The high level of global demand for health services has influenced the rapid development of the tourism industry. Many destinations providing high-quality healthcare services at low prices have emerged. Due to these developments in the industry, the health tourism market, one of the fastest growing markets, has emerged. Countries operating in the industry are also striving to increase their market shares. Therefore, it is important to understand the dynamics of this global phenomenon. Global Perspectives on the Opportunities and Future Directions of Health Tourism provides new theoretical, practical, and strategic insights into the field of health tourism. It discusses in detail the health tourism industry and its importance for the global economy, countries, and destinations. Covering topics such as elderly consumers, historical development, and image and branding, this premier reference source is an essential resource for government officials, hospital administrators, policymakers, business managers and executives, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

How do we understand health in relation to society? What role do social processes, structures and culture play in shaping our experiences of health and illness? How do we understand medicine and healthcare within a sociological framework? Drawing on international literature and examples, this new edition of Key Concepts in Medical Sociology: · Systematically explains the concepts that have preoccupied medical sociology from its inception, and which have shaped the field as it exists today. · Includes new entries, such as pandemics and epidemics, the environment, intersectionality, pharmaceuticalization, medical tourism and sexuality. · Begins each entry with a definition of the concept then examines its origins, development, strengths and weaknesses, and concludes with suggested further reading for independent learning. Key Concepts in Medical Sociology is essential reading for students in medical sociology as well as those undertaking professional training in health-related disciplines.