Due to the growing income of people, they are becoming more capable to spend sufficient money on luxury and vacations. In order to take a break from their daily routine, they often opt for tourism overseas. People of developed nations commonly do this as they have enough money to have luxurious trip for them and their family, plus it generally can cost a fraction of the cost of such treatment in their native countries.
The concept of going overseas for vacations that include only exploring new places and having local food is becoming outdated. These days, quality wellness care and their affordable prices are attracting huge number of tourists to wellness tourism destinations. The main reason behind the popularity of wellness sector is that it involves traditional methods of relaxing and healing such as yoga, meditation, and traditional Thai medicines or therapies.
In 2012, wellness tourism generated the total revenue of $438.6 billion. Niche tourism is a fast growing sector and contributes greatly in the growth of global tourism industry. According to a Global Wellness Tourism Economy report, “Wellness tourism shares many commonalities with a range of other niche tourism segments, including overlapping travel motivations and interests.
A ‘secondary purpose’ wellness traveler may be simultaneously engaging in adventure tourism, culinary tourism, or eco-tourism as a primary or secondary interest during the same trip.” It further states, “Wellness tourism’s impact on the global economy includes the direct effects of tourists’ trips and expenditures, as well as their indirect and induced effects on the overall economy.”
Europe is on the top to provide international wellness trips and spend billions in this procedure. Wellness tourists from North America spend more than $180 billion and people from Europe spend around $158 billion on wellness trips. Asia pacific, Latin America, and North America are on third, forth, and fifth place. This simply shows that wellness tourism is a sector that generate huge revenue for the global economy, national as well as regional economy of a particular destination.
Wellness tourism provides an opportunity for people who want quality care and therapy in an exotic land. It is the simplest method to get wellness care at affordable prices. On the other hand, it is an effective moneymaking system for hospitals, clinics as well as for the destination and its government. For some countries, wellness tourism is an important tool to get hold of valuable foreign currency for their reserves.
Summary
Many tourists from developed nations spend a huge amount on their health and wellbeing. In order to maintain health, people often opt for wellness tourism as it offers quality care at reasonable prices.
