Wellness Tourism Experience on the Rise Post COVID

This chapter synthesizes the emergence of the growing wellness tourism segment in an era of post-COVID-19 travel when consumer mentality has been radically changed and shifted towards different needs. This includes any activity that allows tourists to work on themselves mentally or physically and present several considerations and recommendations for the wellness industry to take full advantage of tourism opportunities moving forward. It aims to help understand consumer behaviour and preferences by predicting wellness tourism trends and developments, acknowledging the gaps in the research available for understanding wellness tourism post covid and reflecting the experience economy perspective in the sector. A research method was developed, including a literature review and survey application to potential wellness tourists. Discussion of results is provided, along with main conclusions, allowing the identification of trends and development measures to help improve wellness tourism in a post-COVID era.

Applying the Technology Acceptance Model to Design Wellness Tourism E-Guidebook

Wellness tourism is becoming one trend as people desire to travel for fitness and mental health purposes. Wellness tourism resources are one of the South Bandung area's advantages. Information media is needed to be an alternative to the market under developing information about wellness tourism in the region. This applied research designed the wellness tourism e-guidebook by applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as the basis of a design by collecting opinions from 125 respondents who were processed statistically descriptive. The design process uses the canva application, Qr Code, and anyflip. This applied research has resulted in an electronic guidebook created as a reference for information related to wellness tourism in South Bandung. This 66-page book contains four sections in an e-guidebook compiled to meet the practical needs of wellness tourists in South Bandung.

Investigating Factors of Customer Loyalty Formation for Wellness Spa

Research question: The objective of this paper is to examine the level of the development of spa tourism with a special review of the wellness tourist offer of the Republic of Serbia, and also which factors of this tourist offer we should pay special attention to and improve, to achieve the highest level of tourist loyalty. Motivation: The tourism potential of the Republic of Serbia has not been sufficiently researched and that served as a basic motivational factor. Idea: Considering the tourist potential that Serbia has and partly the work of Han et al., (2017), the fact that spa tourism is the fastest-growing sector in the entire tourism industry, and that the wellness tourism offer is a very important segment of spa tourism, there is a need to identify factors that influence the visitors' loyalty formation for such tourist destinations. As the Republic of Serbia has a lot of wellness centres, it represents a very convenient location for conducting such research. Data: This research included 298 guests of wellness centres in Vrnjačka Banja: "Solaris", "Aleksandar", "Merkur", "Zepter", "Kralj", "Slatina" and "Iwa Wellness Centre". Data collection was performed during July and August 2019. Methods: The PLS-SEM method was used in this paper to test the defined research hypotheses. Factors that contribute to loyalty and revisit for the wellness and spa tourist destination were investigated, and they were measured by the appropriate number of questions: quality of wellness and spa tourism, the value of wellness and spa services, attraction of wellness and spa tourist destination and satisfaction with wellness and spa tourist destination. All attitudes were measured using a five-point Likert scale. Results: The quality and value of wellness and spa services positively impact the affection for wellness and spa tourist destination and satisfaction with wellness and spa tourist destination, while the attraction of wellness and spa tourist destination positively affects satisfaction with wellness and spa tourist destination and tendency to revisit by tourists. The existence of a positive influence of satisfaction with wellness and spa tourist destination and the desire to revisit the tourist loyalty formation was also shown. Contribution: Improving the quality, value, and effect with the Republic of Serbia as a wellness and spa tourist destination will increase the satisfaction of visitors and their desire to revisit this tourist destination, which will lead to greater loyalty in the future. This will increase the revenue generated from this type of tourism and accelerate local and regional development.

EL TURISMO DE SALUD DESDE EL ENFOQUE SISTÉMICO: APLICACIÓN A LA PROVINCIA DE ALICANTE

El propósito de ese trabajo se centra en identificar los principales fundamentos condicionantes de la demanda y de la oferta en el turismo de salud sobre la base de la teoría de sistemas. Además, se lleva a cabo un análisis empírico del turismo médico, turismo wellness y turismo medical wellness de la provincia de Alicante desde este enfoque. Metodológicamente el trabajo se fundamenta en una tarea de sistematización de la bibliografía anglo-germánica existente sobre el tema y no traducida al español. La relevancia de este artículo la constituye la novedad de su enfoque metodológico y su aplicación sobre el turismo de salud, así como su aplicación a un espacio turístico consolidado, como es la provincia de Alicante, donde esta modalidad está implantada y viene funcionando desde hace décadas. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main determinants conditioning supply and demand in health tourism based on systems theory. An empirical analysis of medical tourism, wellness tourism and medical wellness tourism in the Province of Alicante is carried out, applying the aforementioned approach. Methodologically, the work is based on the task to systematize the existing Anglo-German literature on the subject that has not been translated into Spanish. The relevance of this article lies in the novelty of the methodological approach and its application to health tourism as well as its application to a consolidated tourist area, such as the Province of Alicante, where this modality is established and has been working for decades.

Stakeholder-based conjoint analysis for branding wellness tourism in Kerala, India

Wellness tourism is a fast-growing tourism industry segment and major wellness tourism destinations are found in the Asia–Pacific region, including India. The region of Kerala in India has an abundant natural, cultural and entrepreneurial resources for the development of wellness tourism. These resources are centered on the unique and traditional Ayurveda treatment, complemented by impressive natural landscapes and rich cultures and history. Despite the abundance and quality of resources and services provided by a large number of stakeholders, Kerala lacks a branding strategy for differentiating Kerala as a wellness tourism destination to compete in international markets. A stakeholder-based participatory process was developed to co-create a branding strategy, involving a destination audit supported by an online conjoint analysis survey to discover the relative importance of ‘high-level’ attributes associated with Kerala’s wellness tourism resources. The most important attributes are ‘Fits with strategic priorities of the organisation’ and ‘Ability to integrate into wellness tourism packages’. The main resources complementing wellness services are natural features and cultural heritage. This research contributes to stakeholder-based participatory methods for destination branding.

Driving Factors of the Health and Wellness Tourism Industry: A Sharing Economy Perspective Evidence from KPK Pakistan

In the recent years, the health and wellness tourism industry has become one of the new emerging industries in Pakistan. In terms of the sharing economy, the driving mechanism of the health and wellness tourism industry has undergone significant changes. Based on a combination of theoretical and practical research, the paper explores the dynamic system and mechanism of innovation development of health and wellness in the tourism industry in Pakistan. Firstly, it theoretically constructs the driving factors in four aspects, which include market demand, industrial supply, infrastructure, and external environment. Secondly, taking Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KPK) as an example, it uses the entropy method and Grey relational analysis to test the driving factors system. The empirical results show that four aspects jointly influence the innovation of the health and wellness tourism industry in Pakistan. Finally, this study discusses several practical implications for the development of the health and wellness tourism industry of KPK for academics, policymakers, business owners, and scholars, with recommendations for future research.

Sustainable Mountain-Based Health and Wellness Tourist Destinations: The Interrelationships between Tourists’ Satisfaction, Behavioral Intentions, and Competitiveness

As mountain-based health and wellness tourism increases, destination competitiveness becomes ever fiercer. The pre-visit expectations and post-visit perceptions of tourists and the tourists’ behavioral intentions are related to the competitiveness of mountain-based health and wellness tourist destinations. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), we explored the factors that affect destination competitiveness and its relationships with tourism satisfaction and tourists’ behavioral intentions to return to and to recommend the location to others. We used a questionnaire for data collection from 550 tourists who visited a mountain-based health and wellness tourist destination in Panzhihua, China. The results suggested that there is an indirect positive correlation between tourists’ satisfaction and destination competitiveness, as well as a direct positive correlation between behavioral intentions and destination competitiveness, illustrating that tourist behavioral intentions can be an important factor in destination competitiveness. In the case of Panzhihua, the tourist source market in China has provided a competitive edge to this city. In addition, considering the environment’s capacity, developing an intention to return in tourists is important for tourism marketing in view of the increasing mountain-based health and wellness tourism competitiveness and concerns about sustainability.