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

supporting factors and resources, destination policy, planning and development, destination
management, and qualifying and amplifying determinants. Comparative advantages include
human resources, physical, knowledge and capital resources, infrastructure and cultural and
historical resources. Competitive advantages on the other hand include effectiveness,
efficiency, maintenance and auditing. As core resources and attractors they listed e.g.
physiography and climate, culture and history, mix of activities, special events and
entertainment, while supporting factors and resources include infrastructure, hospitality,
enterprises and facilitating resources. Destination management includes among others
marketing, quality of services, information and research, human resource development and
visitor management. Destination policy, planning and development include visions, branding,
positioning, monitoring and evaluation, while location, safety, cost value, image and carrying
capacity are seen as qualifying and amplifying determinants.
The model by Ritchie and Crouch includes many key elements which are important for
competition between tourist destinations. Cracolici and Nijkamp point out that “...achieving a
good performance and position in the tourism market depends on the capability of a
destination area to manage and organize its resources according to an economic logic driven
by competitiveness strategies”. (Cracolici & Nijkamp 2008, 338.)
The model by Ritchie and Crouch has been further developed by Sheldon and Park (2009) to
be more readily applicable in the wellness tourism context. Sheldon and Park noted that the
model is crucial to identify the supporting factors and resources for wellness tourism because
it would not be possible to develop wellness products if the destination cannot provide basic
infrastructure and guarantee access to the area. According to them (ibid. p. 100) “destinations
can no longer be passive and allow themselves to naturally adapt, but must strategically plan
for this market and identify their competitive advantage. Identification of wellness resources
and products, and strategic positioning in the market are critical to success”
From the resource point of view, the attractions are of vital importance. The built-up and
natural physical environment of a destination, its local culture and community spirit can be
considered as the core resources in tourism. The attractiveness of a destination can be
considered from different angles, among them nature and landscape, culture, history, facilities
for engaging in various hobbies, and accessibility. However, the resource itself is not a
product. Rather, existing resources are the necessary precondition for the creation of a travel
experience that can be turned into a saleable tourism product (Middleton with Clarke 2001,
Middleton 1997, Järviluoma 1994).
Concepts of wellness and wellbeing are quite widely used, for example, in the health,
wellbeing and tourism sectors. The concepts are sometimes used synonymously, but there are
differences in content and meaning. Especially in the Finnish context, the terms are used
interchangeably and this inconsistent use has caused considerable confusion. In this paper, the
term of wellbeing is used instead of wellness. The reason for this is that in Finnish one term
“hyvinvointi” is used render what in English is rendered as wellness and wellbeing. (see Konu
et al. 2010.)
A model of a sustainable wellbeing destination
As mentioned earlier, Sheldon and Park (2009) developed their model (see Figure 1) to be
more readily applicable in the wellness/wellbeing tourism context. In the model of Crouch
and Ritchie (2003/2005) branding, awareness and image are situated among qualifying and
amplifying determinants. Sheldon and Park (2009) argue that these branding efforts should be