Wellness tourism: Market analysis of a special health tourism segment and implications for the hotel industry

The term ‘wellness’ is widely used in European tourism. The principal observations regarding the wellness industry concern an expanding supply of and an insufficiently researched demand for wellness programmes. The quality dimension of wellness services is increasingly becoming the decisive competitive factor. For this reason quality management plays an important role. Market research shows that average three- to five-star hotels provide fairly comprehensive wellness facilities. Wellness hotels should therefore specialise in health information, individual care and a wide range of cultural and relaxation programmes. Although the same hotel can host cure and wellness guests at the same time, these two segments have to be considered separately when deciding on the marketing strategy. It is therefore assumed that wellness is pursued solely by ‘healthy’ people, the prime aim being prevention. ‘Normal cure’ guests aim to heal their illness.