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

Resort spas – Sometimes called ‘amenity spas’, the spa treatments are part of a wider range of
recreational activities offered by a resort or hotel. Other fitness and health programs are
available but are optional – the emphasis is on leisure and wellbeing rather than health and
fitness.
Other spa experiences include Cruise Spas (cruise ships set up with spa facilities), Club Spas
(day spas with an emphasis on fitness), Golf Spas and Ski Spas. A very small but growing
segment of the health tourism sector is dental tourism. Obviously this type of health tourism
does carry with it some dangers.
The newest phenomenon is the development of ‘Spa Tourism’, where the emphasis is on
relaxation and beauty treatments. Spa resorts in fact have a long history – travellers have
been attracted to mineral springs, which are often believed to have many healing properties,
since the Roman era. ‘Taking the waters’ became a popular pastime amongst the middle and
upper classes in the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain and Europe. The latest revival in spa
treatments began in the 1980s and continues to be a major sector of the health tourism
industry.
The turn of the century has produced concern about the future of the spa industry in its classic
form as a component of a comprehensive health system; on the other hand, there is talk of a
renaissance in which the spa industry becomes a fixed component of the hotel trade. Spa
hotels, which up till now shared highly similar operational and business conditions, are
worried about heretofore lucrative long-term stays, the loss of interest from the health care
sphere, the loss of the possibility to generalize the results of spa treatment, as well as the loss
of motivation by qualified health care providers. This trend concerns all traditional spa
industry leaders. On the other hand, the spa industry is becoming a component of hotel
services on a global scale. Wellness or spa operations are not missing from any newly opened
“full-service/upscale” hotel, hotel lines are adding spa facilities, and “spa brands” are being
franchised. On one hand traditional spa hotels fear sophisticated competition, while on the
other they could capitalize on the fact that consumers already consider spa services to be
standard offerings and that these consumers have become accustomed to them and are
familiar with individual procedures. The traditional facilities are attempting to set themselves
apart from the competition and maintain a hallmark of exclusivity in various manners such as
employing the appellation of “medical wellness,” certificates, and so on. Nevertheless, they
need to be careful. Following this unprecedented boom the market appears to be saturated and
the tide of services and new ideas is slowing; many trends in tourism are going in a single or
opposite direction.
Health tourism ranges from travel experiences that offer relaxation and promote a general
sense of well-being (eg. health farms and spa resorts) to travel that is for specific medical
reasons (eg. to obtain cosmetic surgery). Most people participate in health tourism for one or
more of the following reasons:lose weight, quit smoking or conquer some other addiction,
become fitter, become less stressed, gain physical flexibility, improve digestion and
circulation, gain a more positive outlook on life, improve their appearance.
Health tourism tends to appeal to the upper end of the market, with many luxury hotels and
resorts tapping into this lucrative market. Clients are generally affluent, female and middle
aged. Most are private clients, although the corporate market is expanding in many areas.