IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/15607_42.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Cosmetic surgery tourism

In: Handbook on Medical Tourism and Patient Mobility

Author

Listed:
  • Ruth Holliday
  • David Bell

Abstract

Cosmetic surgery tourism (CST) can be defined as travel to access procedures to enhance appearance. It is a rapidly growing form of medical tourism, normally paid for out-of-pocket and constructed as elective. This chapter presents an overview of CST informed by the results of the largest research project to date to investigate CST. Drawing on participant observation and over 200 interviews, the authors provide a picture of the CST sector and of patient experiences. The chapter describes the main drivers and the decision-making processes of patients, outlines the roles of key players such as facilitators and agents, considers the marketing of CST and in particular the role of the internet and social media, and discusses patient outcomes. CST is seen as a trailblazer for medical tourism and the globalisation of health care, and the chapter discusses the likely future developments in the field. Issues of regulation and debates about the ‘burden’ of CST on domestic health care are highlighted.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruth Holliday & David Bell, 2015. "Cosmetic surgery tourism," Chapters, in: Neil Lunt & Daniel Horsfall & Johanna Hanefeld (ed.), Handbook on Medical Tourism and Patient Mobility, chapter 42, pages 421-430, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:15607_42
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/9781783471188.00055.xml
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:15607_42. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.