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

Table 2: Average Number of Employees
Wellness Provider Category
Average Number of
Employees
Day Spas
Spa
Resorts/Hotels
Lifestyle
Resorts
Spiritual
Retreats
Metropolitan area 4.9 9.4 4.6 np*
Regional area 7.9 5.6 18.6 3.9
Total (all areas) 6.7 6.5 13.7 4.0
(*)Not published where sample base is less than 5 cases.
Respondents were asked about the proportion of clients using different distribution channels.
The vast majority of wellness providers rely on the direct-to-consumer business model (Table
3). Only 2% of all wellness service providers use an Internet intermediary and 1% of the
business results from recommendations by government travel centres or visitor information
centres. The telephone seems to be the key direct-to-consumer distribution channel for day
spas and it is also important for the other wellness provider categories. The Internet appears to
be a significant direct-to consumer distribution channel, particularly for Lifestyle Resorts and
Spiritual Retreats. Forty-one percent of Lifestyle Resorts and 66% of Spiritual Retreats
communicate with their customers either via email or via their own Internet booking facility.
Face-to-face contact tends to be more important for Day Spas and Hotel/Resorts Spas than for
Lifestyle Resorts and Spiritual Retreats.
Table 3: Average Proportion of Bookings via Different Distribution Channels
Wellness Provider Category
Day Spas
Spa
Hotels/Resorts
Lifestyle
Resorts
Spiritual
Retreats
TOTAL
Direct from
consumer via:
Phone 72% 55% 42% 20% 52%
Mail - - 3% 3% 1%
In person 17% 14% 5% 10% 13%
Email 7% 17% 31% 39% 20%
Booking
facility on our
Internet site
2% 5% 10% 27% 8%
Internet
consolidator
- 3% 2% 1% 2%
Retail travel agent - - - - -
Government
travel centre/VIC
1% - 1% 1% 1%
Services offered by Wellness Providers. Table 4 shows an overview of the types of services
and facilities provided by each wellness provider category. The table shows that Lifestyle
Resorts are most likely to offer a wide range of movement therapies such as gym classes,
yoga and guided walking or water activities than the other wellness providers. While no
Spiritual Retreat offers gym classes, by far higher proportions of Spiritual Retreats offer
mind-body activities such as yoga, T’ai Chi or Qi Gong or guided walking activities when
compared to Day Spas and Spa Hotels/Resorts.