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

Research methods
First, data on beneficial image components were collected in two different settings: 1. from
about 100 travelers at home (Austria in this case) for the destinations Thailand and Hungary
splitting the sample into a 2 by 2 roster: travel context and previous visits. Travel context was
either a wellness trip or a seaside/lakeside vacation. The task was to elicit reasons why they
would travel to the given destination in a completely open format. To consider contextual
differences half of the sample was told to having decided for a sun & beach (sea or lake) trip;
the other half decided for a wellness travel. 2. from about 60 travelers in Thailand
differentiating between wellness and other types of tourists. Applying this kind of item
generating approach it is possible to elaborate on differences in category descriptions about
destinations travelers bear in mind when choosing travel destinations.
Second, to address the focal area of concern – the dominance of piecemeal or attribute based
image measurement – this study followed the line of thought of the middle level theory of
category-based processing. Once, consumers are capable of assigning a new stimulus to an
already known category she or he infers existing knowledge and schemata about the category
which is held in memory for an exemplar or prototype (Fiske and Pavelchak 1984). Tapachai
and Waryszak (1990) developed so-called proxy prototypes for a destination (Thailand and
USA) splitting them along five different value domains initially developed by Sheth, Newman
and Gross (1991). Their model assumes that consumers associate benefits of consumption
values with a product or service which can be condensed into a five-dimensional array:
functional, social, emotional, epistemic, and conditional. For the current study the following
destination proxy prototypes (see Table 1) have been developed from the Step 1 data
collection and grouped along the five consumptions values. Respondents were invited to give
their comments and remarks on the category descriptions. Coding of the consent, partial
consent or disagreement with the prototype descriptions followed the procedure outline by
Tapachai and Waryszak (2000).
Table 1 Proxy prototypes for destination images split into five dimensions
Dimension Proxy prototype
Functional Thailand is generally known as a vacation destination with beautiful
scenery, many attractions and a constant warm climate. I associate it
with healthy and country-specific food, cheap shopping opportunities as
well as with outstanding sea water quality (colours) and beach quality. I
immediately combine it with family friendly services and authentic spa
and wellness services.
Emotional Thailand is well-known for exotic, relaxing and pampering holidays.
The country offers romantic, calm and vacations in a safe environment.
Local people are open-minded and share an outstanding friendliness
paired with an exceptional hospitality.
Social Thailand is highly recommended by friends and relatives. Many visitors
come back again and again. It is a destination where you can meet
people of every age and have plenty of parties.
Epistemic Thailand is a country to go for its very different culture. It is known for
a rich variety of traditions. Holidays in the country can easily be
combined with city visits to learn a lot about its cultural heritage.
Conditional For me, Thailand is a destination which is easily accessible and offering
good value-for-money. There are always a lot of offers and attractive
deals. Holidays there mean low incidental expenses.