Factors Driving the American Aesthetic Tourism to South of the Border

Abstract

Background: The problem consists in the lack of knowledge of the factors that tourists choose the clinics of a foreign city for their aesthetics treatments, especially at a frontier where a developed and developing country coexist and interact.

Methods: The information was obtained on 2016, by applying an exit pool survey to a selected sample of 385 visitors- patients from clinics in the Tijuana, Mexico. Sixteen items were included in the exploratory factor analysis.

Results: Four key factors influenced the decision: Quality & Prestige of Clinic and Surgeon, Integration with Tourism Sector, Destination Image and Border Interaction. All the elements had a load factor greater than 0.56 which proved the actual fit in the factor analysis and none of the included variables is trivial.

Conclusion: Allow maintaining or increasing the attractiveness of a border city for aesthetic tourism, the administrators of the clinics establish cooperation agreements with entrepreneurs of the tourism sector to benefit their patients.