Halal Food and Medical Tourism: Muslim Patients’ Experiences and Satisfaction in South Korea

This study examined the halal food services provided by South Korean health care institutions to patients from the United Arab Emirates and their companions. This study considered only patients who traveled for medical tourism. Semistructured interviews were conducted, and the primary topics discussed by participants were their experiences and the factors that affected their overall satisfaction. In February 2017, a chain referral sampling technique was used to recruit 15 patients/companions from the United Arab Emirates. To ensure consistency, an interview guide was used by the interviewer during the interview sessions. The participants were asked specific questions regarding their experiences with the food services, such as “How satisfied were you with the food services in the Korean health care institutions?” and “How was your experience with the food services in the Korean health care institutions?”. Recordings were transcribed into and analyzed in Arabic. All participants were males between the international age of legal adulthood and 49 years old. Notable gaps emerged following the analysis among the various levels of halal meal service provided to the participants by different Korean health care institutions. The following five levels were revealed by the analysis: the management of the Korean health care institutions did not understand the patients’ needs; Korean health care institutions addressed the situation and adopted a new halal food policy; the food offered by Korean health care institutions was not fully perceived as halal; the food offered by Korean health care institutions was not perceived as good-quality halal food; and the food was delicious, preferred, and trusted by the patients. In-depth consideration of the diversity of religious needs in different cultures as well as the availability of the means of meeting those needs in medical tourism destinations might help enrich our understanding of global medical tourism.