Developing a service marketing strategy for wellness tourism company

1 IntroductionThe wellness industry in doing well and you can’t see the end of this era yet. The sizeof the global wellness industry was $1,948.7 US in 2010 and has obviously grown fromthat in recent years. Global Spa Summit listed in 2010 4 mega trends, ageing people,unhealthy people, failing medical system and globalization and connection to be thereasons why there is growing demand for wellness products and services. Wellnesstourism is not a new thing either, but definitely the popularity of wellness in general hasalso effected on tourism services.In the thesis we approach the wellness tourism with the frame work of servicemarketing and try to find the most suitable marketing strategies for a company inwellness tourism industry. The core features of marketing a briefly explain to give areader the better understanding of the whole concept of marketing, before talking aboutthe special features of service marketing. As a result of a literature review author chosethe most relevant marketing strategies, which could be used in the process of buildinga marketing strategy for case study company Golden Retreats.Golden Retreats is an organizer of yoga retreats to Thailand. They want to attract yogapractisers from USA for a week-long yoga retreat which is held in north of Thailand, inChiang Mai. They are offering a full service holiday package which main attribute willbe the yoga and meditation practices with the Narayani, who is the main owner andprofessional yoga teacher.Based on the research it was obvious that the customer orientated approach tomarketing would be the most suitable for the wellness tourist company, as theinteraction between the customer and the company has such a big role. In a nichemarket such as Yoga, it is important to have full understanding of the target market’sneeds and desires, in order to create a successful company. (Lehto, 2006). Basedonhis research yoga tourists are driven by the motivations of finding spirituality,enhancing mental well-being and physical condition and control the negative emotions.These are the need which the marketing strategy for a company like Golden Retreatshas to consider.6