factors driving the american aesthetic tourism to south of the border

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 co-exist 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 administra-tors of the clinics establish cooperation agreements with entrepreneurs of the tourism sector to benefit their patients.