Wednesday, March 27, 2024
The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a premier research body for the wellness sector, today unveiled its latest publication, “Wellness Policy Toolkit: Wellness in Tourism”. This document is a new installment in GWI’s series on policy guidance, advocating for inclusive actions to infuse wellness into tourism, accessible to stakeholders ranging from governmental bodies to leaders in the travel sector. This approach introduces a fresh perspective, shifting the dialogue from merely focusing on wellness tourism to incorporating wellness within tourism.
Unlike previous strategies centered around developing upscale spa resorts and attracting affluent visitors, this toolkit aims to harmonize wellness and tourism comprehensively. It proposes policies designed to benefit everyone, by enhancing tourist experiences, boosting tourism success, and simultaneously improving the well-being of locals and destinations alike. The document pinpoints six major obstacles hindering the ability of wellness tourism to provide widespread health and wellness advantages, and it outlines six policy interventions to address these challenges.
“Wellness tourism does not exist in a vacuum and wellness travelers cannot be confined to a bubble,” said Ophelia Yeung, GWI senior research fellow. “For those who want to succeed long-term in wellness tourism, it is only logical to focus more attention on the wellness of the place—including the local wellness infrastructure, the wellness of its people, and the destination.”
The toolkit is crafted for individuals seeking to integrate wellness extensively into tourism, place-making, and local development strategies. The recommendations span various aspects, including wellness tourism, sustainable and responsible tourism, equitable wellness, quality of life, place-making, and place-keeping. This makes it relevant for professionals in hospitality, tourism promotion, destination management, economic development, as well as those advocating for worker well-being, community welfare, cultural heritage, and environmental conservation.
Key challenges in wellness tourism and their solutions include:
1) A limited perception of wellness tourism’s scope and benefits among businesses, governments, communities, and travelers, with policy suggestions aimed at broadening the understanding and impact of wellness tourism.
2) The isolation of wellness tourism from local economies, consumers, and communities, with policies to foster integration between wellness tourism and local economic activities.
3) The overlooked well-being of those working to enhance others’ wellness, with policies to improve the health of the tourism workforce.
4) The negative impact of tourism, including wellness tourism, on destinations and local communities, with policies promoting equitable and sustainable development.
5) The challenge of keeping governmental policies and regulations in pace with the fast-evolving wellness sector, with policies to support the wellness tourism market through updated knowledge and regulations.
6) The pervasive yet often unbeneficial role of technology in tourism, with policies to ensure technology enhances travelers’ well-being.
Additionally, GWI released a comprehensive dataset on the wellness tourism market, covering the period from 2012 to 2022 and projecting trends up to 2027. This dataset illustrates the sector’s rapid growth, from generating $439 billion in 2012 to an expected $1.4 trillion by 2027, and highlights the increasing proportion of wellness trips within the overall tourism industry. It offers a detailed comparison of growth rates, demonstrating wellness tourism’s significant and enduring impact on the travel sector.
Saturday, April 27, 2024
