%0 Journal Article
%T ASSISTED-SUICIDE TOURISM: IS IT TOURISM?
%A Gregory Higginbotham
%J Tourismos : an International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism
%D 2011
%I University of the Aegean
%X The purpose of this paper is to employ basic social psychological concepts in the interrelated fields of recreation, leisure, and tourism in an effort to examine if the medical tourism segment of assisted-suicide tourism is in fact a valid form of tourism. The comparative analysis reveals that although possessing an intrinsic motivation and an element of perceived freedom, travel for assisted-suicide is detached from the rewarding outcomes one normally receives from recreation, leisure, and tourism. Moreover, the consumption of tourism products is imparting an impression of actual tourism, whilst in reality the assisted-suicide experience is very much uninvolved in the true recreational and leisure aspects of tourism. The results of this paper are valuable for medical tourism and the tourism industry by helping both to avoid sectors that do not theoretically fit under their designations.
%K Assisted-suicide tourism
%K medical tourism
%K leisure
%K social psychology
%U http://www.chios.aegean.gr/tourism/VOLUME_6_No2_art11.pdf