Health, Wellness and Tourism: healthy tourists, healthy business ...

Perceptions, learning and attitudes may be influential to ones’ motivation factors and thus
influence the consumer/tourist behaviours. Accordingly, the informants think that it is
important to participate in activities that contribute to ones’ health and well-being. They seek
to find balance or moderation in their lifestyles which is believed to makes ones healthy or
healthier thus ones may live longer and able to lead more enjoyable lives. The informants
seem to be health conscious, most of them claimed to have being part of the health regimes,
for examples, they do regular exercises, walking or running, Pilates and Yoga, practice
healthy eating, involve in sport activities and occasionally go to spas, have massages,
pedicure and manicure. Few informants confessed that they do not have much time to involve
in any health activities due to the nature of their works (physical jobs, a demanding work): “I
don’t do daily activities in England. No time, because of my work. My work is long, so after
work I have no time to the gym, swimming, or… (Interview informant 14)”, “I don’t do them
but I would like to do them. I don’t have time to do them. (Interview informant 15)” This
indicates that the informants are health conscious but they do not have much time for health
remedies.
According to the findings, holiday seems as the best time and opportunity for the informants
to do things that they do not normally do at home to improve their health and well-being –
relaxation being part of their holiday as majority of the informants came to Sabah for holiday
and relaxation. They travelled mainly to see the wildlife (Orang Utan, Proboscis monkey, and
turtles) and natural environment (rainforest, mountain, beaches and islands) in Sabah. Other
than that, they also came because of the resorts, weather, culture, proximity to Hong Kong
(transit flights to home countries) and the range of activities like trekking up Mount Kinabalu,
golfing and water activities (snorkelling and diving). Previous travel experiences, the travel
agents’ and friends’ recommendations also influenced tourists’ decisions to come to Sabah,
especially for the first-time tourists. The travel agents and the internet were the main sources
of information for the tourists when selecting a travel destination.
In line with aforementioned, spa is not at all considered to be one of the reasons in selecting
Sabah as a holiday destination. However, when selecting an accommodation, the informants
generally consider spa as part of the resort/hotel’s facilities provided to the guests and would
have expected it if the accommodation is a 5-star resort/hotel. According to the responses, the
informants perceive spa as a place that has the ideas of relaxation, pampering, luxury, the idea
of massage and varieties of treatments, regeneration, clean and calm, tranquillity, enjoyment,
and expensive. Interestingly, there were informants associated spas with hot tubs or hot
springs. This suggests that the spa is associated with water and hot springs are the common
sources for building spas, which can be evidenced from the following quotes: “Luxury,
expensive… I think tranquil… hot tub… (Interview informant 13)” and “Different, because I
lived in Japan, so now I know the spa there was different, kinds of hot springs. So, that’s what
I initially thought about spa. (Interview informant 14)” Therefore, it is suggested that the
informants generally go on holiday for relaxation; spa is not the main reason to select a
holiday destination, but rather as part of the relaxation options/remedies during holiday.
Besides of being relaxed during holiday, the spa experience is regarded as part of the
enjoyment of holiday experience. This is reflected in the response “It is part of the enjoyment
of my holiday and it also adds to the relaxation of my holiday and the experience of my
holiday” (Interview informant 7)
Moreover, majority of the informants thought that it is important to involve in health-related
activities during holiday. They suggested that ones need healthy activities all around and not
just during holiday, or to keep moving and keep doing things even if during holiday, but it is