Wellness Tourism ― A Destination Perspective

Core values of society, health and wellbeing impact today on all aspects of our lives, and have also increasingly influenced patterns of tourism consumption and production. In this context wellness has developed into a significant dimension of tourism in a number of new and long established destinations. However, although it is consistently referred to as one of the most rapidly growing forms of tourism worldwide there still remains a dearth of academic literature on this topic.

This book uniquely focuses on the supply side of wellness tourism from a destination perspective in terms of the generation and delivery of products and services for tourists who seek to maintain and improve their health. This approach provides a better understanding of how wellness tourism destinations develop and explores the specific drivers of that growth in a destination context and how destinations successfully compete against each other in globalised market place. A range of wellness destination development and management issues are examined including the importance of authenticity, an appropriate policy framework, delivery of high quality goods and services, participation of a broad range of stakeholders and the development of networks and clusters as well as collaborative strategies essential for a successful development and management of a wellness tourism destination. International case studies and examples from established and new wellness tourism destinations are integrated throughout.

This timely volume written by leaders in this sector will be of interest to tourism and hospitality students and academics internationally.

Cornelia Voigt has worked as a researcher and lecturer at different universities. Her PhD thesis, titled ‘Understanding Wellness Tourism: An Analysis of Benefits Sought, Health-Promoting Behaviours and Positive Psychological Well-Being’ was awarded with the ‘Sustainable Tourism CRC Sir Frank Moore Award for Excellence in PhD Research’, an annual, national award acknowledging the best tourism thesis written in each year. Her research won several additional awards and she has published in leading international tourism journals. Dr Voigt’s expertise in wellness tourism has lead to the acquisition of competitive research grants and a number of invited speeches at international conferences.

Christof Pforr (PhD) is Course Coordinator for Tourism & Hospitality and Group Leader of the Research Focus Area ‘Sustainable and Health Tourism’ with the School of Marketing, Curtin Business School. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Northern Territory University and a ‘Staatsexamen’ in Geography and Political Science from the University of Tubingen (Germany). His academic background is reflected in his main research interests, which include tourism policy and planning, sustainable (tourism) development, health tourism, coastal tourism and geotourism as well as destination governance with a specific focus on network management and network analysis, all fields he has frequently published in. He has contributed to more than 100 publications and numerous international research collaborations. Dr Pforr has authored, co-authored or co-edited five book. He is also on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Safety and Security in Tourism / Hospitality and Book Review Editor of the International Journal of Tourism Policy.