Two  Key Things to Know About Wellness Tourism:

"Family Practicing Yoga on Vacation," digital image, created by OpenAI's DALL-E, accessed January 19, 2024. Used under license from OpenAI.


1. What is wellness tourism?

The Global Wellness Institute defines wellness tourism as travel associated with the pursuit of maintaining or enhancing one’s personal well-being. With so much wellness embedded in today’s travel, wellness tourism brings the promise of combating those negative qualities and turning travel into an opportunity to maintain and improve our holistic health.

2. Wellness tourism is not medical tourism.

Wellness tourism is often conflated with medical tourism—not only by consumers but in destination marketing. This confusion is caused by an incomplete understanding of these markets and inconsistent usage of terminologies by destinations, government organizations and promotion agencies. Sometimes the term “health tourism” is also used as a catch-all to describe many types of medical and wellness services and activities—from open heart surgery and dental care to destination spas and yoga retreats—causing further confusion. In fact, these two sectors operate largely in separate domains and meet different consumer needs.

A good way to understand the difference is to look at our health and well-being on a continuum:

Tourism can contribute to well-being in a number of ways.
  • Wellness tourism
    Travel that aims to improve physical or mental health through activities like yoga, spa breaks, or outdoor recreation. Wellness tourism can also involve sustainable interactions with local communities and the environment.
  • Health tourism
    A combination of recreational and medical activities, such as healthcare services, acupuncture, and medical treatments.
  • Social connections
    Forming social connections during travel can help protect against loneliness and depression.
  • Exposure to nature
    Spending time in natural environments can help restore cognition and emotion, and induce a sense of calm.
  • Quality time
    Travel can provide opportunities to spend quality time with companions, and to have personal disclosures.
The tourism sector can also have an impact on the well being of local communities, particularly those that are dependent on tourism.

 

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