Scope of The Book

This book will provide a comprehensive overview of the philosophical, conceptual and managerial issues surrounding the field of health tourism in the Asia Pacific Region from an internal perspective. The contributors are experts in their fields and have come together to provide a cutting edge analysis of the emergence and future of health tourism in this region. This includes analyzing the definitions and concepts used in health and medical tourism from regional and national perspectives. An overview is provided of the resources and facilities which are frequently used in health tourism in the region, and the healthcare policies, regulations and ethical considerations that have evolved, and now have to include this new form of tourism. Strong attention is paid to traditional medicine and cultural inputs that are critical to the understanding of the future of health tourism in this region. The lifestyle changes that are taking place in regional societies which influence consumer behavior, motivations and demand for health tourism are also covered.

The main aim of the book is to provide a holistic account of the transitions in the human use of health care systems in contemporary times that will determine its future, deepen understanding about these very dynamic and complex landscapes, and fill in the gaps in the existing literature. It will also provide significant new information about ongoing efforts to tackle a number of problems (such as the origins of organ transplants, the quality and applicability of traditional medicines, and the ability of local health systems to service foreign tourists, for example), and the limitations and challenges ahead for such efforts. The contents will also be helpful for researchers and practitioners working on governance and risk management in health care systems. The work will also contribute to the young discipline of health-oriented tourism as a destination and a community revitalization focus. The chapters will include a mix of theoretical observations and empirical case studies. Finally, this introduction will round off with summaries of all the chapters, attention being given to how they contribute to the overall understanding of health oriented tourism, even though they may be location-specific case studies.

We seek potential chapter authors for this upcoming edited book, "The Global Context of Health Tourism in the Asia Pacific". We welcome contributions covering the following areas but not limited to these. A short abstract indicating the main objective and theme of the envisaged book chapter is requested and should be maximum of 500-600 words.

Chapters should be a maximum of 6000 words including references. Chapters can be either case studies or theoretical/empirical research, but they should take international perspective.