The Routledge Handbook of Health Tourism

Health and travel? Travelling for health? Healthy travel? The arena of health related tourism is currently very dynamic with both Medical and Wellness tourism forecasted to enjoy an exponential rate of growth in coming years. Press releases and publications are shared almost daily indicating how exceptional this industry is whilst professional books and journal articles show the interest of the academic community. Still, we know relatively little about this rather complex form of travel with the definition and taxonomy often discussed and debated.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive and cutting edge overview of the philosophical, conceptual and managerial issues in the field of health tourism with contributions from more than thirty expert academics and practitioners from around the world. Terms that are used frequently when defining health tourism such as wellbeing, wellness, holistic, medical and spiritual are analysed and explored, as is the role that health and health tourism play in quality of life enhancement, wellbeing, life satisfaction and happiness. An overview is provided of health tourism facilities such as thermal waters, spas, retreats and wellness hotels and the various challenges inherent in managing these profitably and sustainably. Typologies are given not only of sub-sectors of health tourism and related activities but also of destinations, such as natural landscapes, historic townscapes or individual resources or attractions around which whole infrastructures have been developed. Attention is paid to some of the lifestyle changes that are taking place in societies which influence consumer behaviour, motivations and demand for health tourism, including government policies, regulations and ethical considerations.

This significant volume offers the reader a comprehensive synthesis of this field, conveying the latest thinking and research. The text is international in focus, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study and will be an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in Health Tourism.

Dr Melanie Kay Smith is? Associate Professor at Budapest Metropolitan University in the School of Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality. She is the co-author of the book Health, Tourism and Hospitality: Spas, Wellness and Medical Travel (2013) with Dr Laszlo Puczko and has worked for over ten years on health tourism, including research, lecturing and the publication of several journal articles and book chapters. She has been an invited Keynote Speaker at many international Conferences, and has undertaken health tourism consultancy work in a range of countries, including for ETC and UNWTO. She has most recently been working on Baltic Health Tourism and Balkan Wellbeing concepts, as well as an EU COST project on Tourism, Wellbeing and Ecosystem Services. Her most recent teaching and research focuses on evidence-based healing resources and therapies.

Dr Laszlo Puczko is the Director of Industry Intelligence at Resources for Leisure Assets and the Head of Tourism and Leisure Knowledge Centre at the Budapest Metropolitan University (Hungary). He has been working as a travel and tourism expert in the health, wellness, medical services and spa arenas for over 20 years. He founded The Tourism Observatory for Health, Wellness and Spa in 2012. He has participated in more than a hundred projects in various fields: research, planning, product development, experience mapping and design, impact assessment and marketing. Laszlo is an internationally known and acknowledged expert, he lectures at various international professional and academic conferences and congresses. He is the (co-)author of numerous specialised books (e.g.: Health, Tourism and Hospitality, Impacts of Tourism) and articles in professional journals.