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

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Sustainable <strong>Wellness</strong> <strong>Tourism</strong> Destination<br />

<strong>Wellness</strong> Destination Development <strong>and</strong> Management<br />

Human resource, training, education, certification programs, building<br />

associations among <strong>and</strong> between the wellness industry <strong>and</strong> public sector<br />

<strong>Wellness</strong> Destination Policy <strong>and</strong> Planning<br />

Vision, goals, private-public sectors’ collaborated planning <strong>and</strong><br />

development of policy, monitoring/evaluation measures of wellness<br />

experiences <strong>and</strong> sustainability<br />

Core <strong>Wellness</strong> Resources <strong>and</strong> Attractions<br />

Unique wellness destination features: natural <strong>and</strong> cultural resources,<br />

traditional healing/therapeutic/wellness resources<br />

Supporting Factors & Resources for <strong>Wellness</strong> <strong>Tourism</strong><br />

Infrastructure, superstructure, residents’ hospitality, <strong>and</strong> knowledge of<br />

healing practices, destination atmosphere (a sense of place)<br />

Figure 1. A model of sustainable wellness destination (Sheldon & Park, 2009, adapted<br />

from Ritchie <strong>and</strong> Crouch, 2002).<br />

This paper aims to implement the model by Sheldon <strong>and</strong> Park by examining an urban<br />

destination, Savonlinna town, <strong>and</strong> its surroundings from the perspective of competitiveness in<br />

the context of wellbeing tourism. Geographically Savonlinna town is located in the Eastern<br />

part of Finl<strong>and</strong>, in the centre of Lake Saimaa (see Figure 2).<br />

Considering tourism in general, Savonlinna has good basic infrastructure <strong>and</strong> its accessibility<br />

is relatively good. The town is about 340 kilometres from the capital Helsinki by road <strong>and</strong><br />

about four hours away by train (see Figure 2). Savonlinna Airport is located about 20<br />

kilometres outside the city, <strong>and</strong> the journey to Helsinki takes 40–60 minutes by plane.<br />

Savonlinna is built on a chain of isl<strong>and</strong>s located throughout a number of large lakes. The lake<br />

environment is a key asset for Savonlinna town.

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