Wellness tourism as you may know is a type of travel by people to other countries with the aim of improving overall health. Wellness tourism combines several things, such as fitness centers, spas, and beauty and yoga centers. People are looking to utilize their spare time to relax and rejuvenate and wellness tourism provides them a way out of their daily hectic work schedules.
Wellness Tourism in Latin America
Wellness tourism is growing all over the world and Latin America is fast becoming one of the favored destinations for wellness tourism. According to a report released by GWTC, market share of Latin American countries is close to $42 billion and the countries in Latin America will notice continuous growth of this industry by as much as 14% every year till 2017.
Growth Rate of Wellness Tourism Industry
Latin American region comprising of South and Central America, Caribbean and Mexico is experiencing unprecedented rise of this industry and is only second to Middle East in terms of the growth rate. It is worth mentioning here that the worldwide growth rate of this industry is estimated to be about 9.9% while other regions such as Germany and USA will only have a growth rate of 5% every year.
Findings from GWTC Report
Let us now look at some other details, which tell us how well the industry is expanding in Latin America.
Expenditure: In terms of expenditure, Latin America has a share of about five percent of the global market, which is worth $439 billion.
Trips: Domestic as well as inbound trips to different Latin American countries will account for around six percent of the global figure for wellness tourists that stand at 524 million.
Top Five Countries:
The 5 leaders in terms of expenditure as well trips are;
- Mexico with expenditure of $8.9 billion and 11.4 million visitors is first in the list.
- Second is Brazil with spending of $2.2 billion and 5.3 million tourists.
- Argentina comes third with expenditure amount at $1.6 billion and 2.3 million trips.
- Fourth in the list is Puerto Rico with 2 million tourists and revenue of $1.5 billion and
- Last is Dominican Republic with $1.2 billion of expenditure.
Conclusion
All over the world, the domestic end of wellness tourism industry is more dominant as compared to international with 84% tourist and revenue of 68% coming from domestic sector. On the other hand in Latin America it is the opposite, and number of international tourists is higher with only 71% tourists being domestic ones and contributing 54% share of spending.
