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

situated at the point at which the core resources of wellness tourism are identified. They
explain this by stating that the wellness resources connected with culture and cultural
elements of the host community are a crucial part of the identity/brand of a destination.
Sheldon and Park (2009) locate wellness destination policy and planning in the third stage.
The reason for this is that in their view wellness tourism cannot be sustainable if it has no
clear vision, goals and positioning on the market. Further, Conlin and Baum (2003) argue that
public policymakers and private sector decision-makers need to recognize the human
resources in indispensable component of successful sustainable tourism development.
According to them, human resources have to be part of the overall planning instead of an
operational consideration. Baum’s comprehensive model calls for consideration of the five
areas of tourism - environment, tourism and labour markets, tourism and education, human
resource practises in the industry and tourism and the community in a comprehensive,
integrated and cohesive manner. (Conlin and Baum, 1994, 2003.)
The planning stage is followed by destination development and management. In this stage it is
guaranteed that the wellness products offered and provided are of high quality. To realize this,
the stage includes elements such as training and education of personnel (human resources)
and opportunities to join certification programmes. (Sheldon and Park, 2009).