Year: 2023
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This dissertation studies different market perspectives regarding wellness tourism.The purpose of this study is to expand the existing knowledge concerning different market perspectives on wellness tourism by increasing the understanding of the cross-cultural differences in the conception of wellness, wellness motivations and service preferences; as well as by revealing the differences in the inter-connections of these factors in the source markets.Wellness tourism in Finland, Russian Karelia, and Lithuania was chosen as the context of the study due to the historical links between these destinations, and their geographical proximity.In addition, wellness tourism is named as a priority in the tourism strategy documents of these regions.Additionally, there is an awareness of the increasing importance of wellness tourism in the global market.This dissertation consists of three papers where a mixed method approach has been used, namely a qualitative multiple case study to examine the perspective from the supply side, and a quantitative study to analyse the demand side perspective of wellness tourism.The study results indicate existing differences in the wellness concept, tourists' motivations and service offerings between the researched case areas and argues that these differences are shaped by the natural environment, natural resources, the regulatory mechanisms of the industry, and the traditions and culture of the destination.The demand side study identified six motivational factors 8 of wellness tourists, rest and relaxation being the most dominant, although significant differences exist between the source markets.Moreover, nationality groups proved to differ in terms of service preferences, and it appears that cultural background is at play in some cases as different nationality groups (Finnish, Lithuanian, Russians living in St. Petersburg area) may have identical service preferences, but the motivation for choosing those services may be different.Finally, the study concluded that tourists' conception of wellness, and their previous experience of wellness tourism consumption in domestic destinations affects their needs, motivations, and preferable way of fulfilment when travelling abroad.The results suggest that markets are heterogenous, and that nationality groups have different conceptions of wellness and thus services preferences and motivations.This implies that in order to stay competitive, businesses should gain more insight about these differences, and be able to diversify and adapt their service offerings, positioning and communication strategies to accommodate these culturally-specific needs of customers.
Author: Bočkus, Daumantas
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G4004192905, G8146040635
OpenAlex ID: W7215202961