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

Third, these proxy prototypes were embedded in a larger paper-and-pencil questionnaire
which was administered among real travellers to Portoroz, Slovenia (527 overnight tourists
from Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia). Tourists were invited to
answer in one of the following language versions: English, German, Italian and Slovenian.
The sample was split into two halves: one sub-sample had to reflect on five Asian destinations
(Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Maldives); the other sub-sample dealt with five
European destinations with access to the sea (Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, Montenegro).
The destinations were selected on the basis of current and/or near-future competitive
relationships in the wellness market. Even though the terms wellness and health tourism do
not share a global and unique definition the phenomenon of a widely increasing tourism
demand with a strong emphasis on physical and mental balance is generally recognized
(Bushell and Sheldon 2009, Smith and Puczko 2009). The investigation of destination images
in the context of two very different traditions of spa and wellness trends (Europe and Asia)
appeared to be challenging and insightful.
Although the open-ended task of collecting elements of the destinations’ images revealed a
number of common (congruent) arguments for Hungary and Thailand, the content analysis
lead to the assumption that two different sub-categories of destination prototypes exist For the
main study (considering only countries with traditional sun and beach tourism), though, the
proxy prototypes were held constant for each of the ten countries involved expecting stated
partial or full objection where applicable. However, based on the insights gained from the
preparatory studies it was deemed not meaningful to project and visualize all ten destinations
in one common competitive map. Finally, to capture contextual effects (wellness vs. sun and
beach), travellers interviewed for the main study are segmented by their propensity to engage
in wellness activities for the current trip or in a wellness travel in the future.
Results
The sample generated from overnight tourists at the selected beach resort in Slovenia was
stratified by nationalities. The given quotas prioritized the top ranked nations, however the
shares are not meant to be proportional to the official statistics. Consequently, the averages
reported here cannot be taken as a valid picture for the average tourism demand for the region.
In contrast, this convenience sample serves the purpose of contrasting mainly two different
traveller segments. These two segments are defined a priori by their affinity towards wellness
travelling. If the current trip was self-rated as a wellness or beauty stay (out of a list of 15 predefined
main travel purposes) or if the respondent stated that she or he generally prefers
staying at wellness resorts or hotels with spa facilities or at some place where spa activities
are consumed, this traveller was classified into the “high affinity or wellness traveller group”,
otherwise into a “low or no affinity segment”. Hence, 62% of the respondents could be
assigned into the group of wellness travellers.
Since the total sample was split into two questionnaire versions (incorporating different sets
of destinations) the structural differences and similarities of the sub-samples are analyzed
first. No significant differences are detected in terms of nationality. Overall, there are 29%
Slovenian tourists, 25% from Austria and Germany, 22% from Italy and 24% other
nationalities. No differences in educational level and gender can be reported. On average,
respondents followed 14 years of formal education: 31% up to 12 years; two thirds up to 15
years; and one third even more. The Asian sub-sample appears to be slightly older (2.5 years
on average). However, significant differences across nationalities and wellness affinity turned
out: Among Slovenian tourists only 50% can be identified as highly interested in wellness
travel. Italian respondents rank highest with a share of 72% compared to 62% on average.