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

The Exploration of the Perceived Travel Benefits and the Perceived
Importance and Interests of Wellness Tourism
Among the Older Adults in Taiwan Kaohsiung
Ping Yu
The Graduate Institute of Adult Education, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan
alrr2007@gmail.com
Janet I-Jane Weng
Department of English, Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages; The Graduate Institute of
Adult Education, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan.
janetweng@mail.wtuc.edu.tw
Abstract
The purposes of this study are to explore and analyze the potential elderly market of wellness
tourism. By using a questionnaire survey, 596 adults of age 50 and above with various
backgrounds in Kaohsiung, the biggest city in southern Taiwan, are involved in the study. An
effort is made to investigate their perceived travel benefits, their perceived importance of
wellness facilities and services in hotels, and their interests in participation in related
activities. Data were analyzed using the statistical cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, chisquare
test, and the t-test. As a result, the elder travelers were segmented into two relatively
well-defined types in terms of their perceived travel benefits: the active benefits seekers and
the passive benefits seekers. Each type has its own characteristics and interests in
participation on the wellness-related activities. The findings indicate that demographic
background, travel experiences and health condition are different significantly between active
and passive benefits seekers. The active benefits seekers tend to be more interesting in
participating in hotel extended wellness-related activities compared with the passive seekers.
On the other hand, compare to the active benefits seekers, the passive benefits seekers ranked
the hotel health-related services and facilities as more important. The study reveals not only a
new perspective to define the wellness market among Taiwan elderly, but also a new market
which can be focused on. Based on the results, discussions and suggestions are generated for
practitioners and researchers.
Keywords elderly, older adults, travel benefits, wellness tourism, wellness hotel
Introduction
Since the health and wellness are the topics concerned most by the older adults, the wellnessrelated
tour package is one of the most attractive leisure selections for the elderly. Research
showed the elders attached a lot importance for health and leisure. In addition, they liked to
join in travel activities and were interesting in lifelong learning (Smith & Kelly, 2006). Chen
and Wu (2005) identified five motives of overseas travel among the Taiwan elders and the
motivation of “health promotion” is on the top of the list as “show off the fun” is the lowest
one. However, as little research has so far been done about wellness tourism, the knowledge
of this potential market is very insufficient (Smith & Kelly, 2006). Wellness travel is a fairly
new product. To better understand the wellness market for those retired older adults with
more leisure time but limited income resources and physical considerations, the authors
believe that their perception of general travel benefits might have great influences on their
trying the new product. Since travel serves multifunctional needs of the tourists, their
perceived travel benefits should be examined as a group type which reveals more meaning to