Wellness tourism or as more popularly known ‘Health and Wellness
Tourism’ is now a global trend set by the health-conscious people who are
desiring to enhance their wellbeing through their travel experiences. This type
of travelers looks for those destinations in different parts of the world where
they will be able to get specialized services to lose weight, feel better, get
rid of muscular problems, eradicate skin problems, relieve from pain and
stress, and many more. They also rely on natural supplements to cure their
problems. Hence, wellness tourism provides dwell benefits – one way travelers
get an opportunity to enjoy the natural and historical spots and on the other
way they could avail the benefits of specialized health and wellness services
provided in those destinations. Apart from specialized hubs, the resorts and
hotels are also creating wellness spas and developing their own hubs for that
purpose to attract consumers.
Over the decades Switzerland has remained one of the most popular
tourism destinations in Europe. Mountains, lakes, old towns and villages are
already popular among the tourists; recently Switzerland has been gaining
attention from large number of tourists as a health and wellness destination.
Hotels and resorts in Switzerland are now focusing on wellness spas and
services for making Switzerland a ‘hotspot’ of wellness tourism in Europe.
Wellness Tourism
Wellness
tourism is not similar to health tourism. In letter situations, people with
health issues travel to other countries for getting specialized medical care
that is not available in their own countries. Sometimes, people also decide to
avail discounted medical facilities in some other countries. Wellness tourism
meant to improve and maintain present health conditions of the tourists though
some specialized spa and like services. Again, there are tourists who want to
maintain their healthy habits when they travel just like normal tourists or for
other purposes. Simply speaking, wellness tourism is travel supplemented with
the accessibility of various means of personal wellbeing.
Three
primary aspects of wellness tourism are lifestyle resorts, beauty spas and
spiritual retreats. Hotels and resorts, with a motif to propagate the concept
of wellness tourism, provide many wellness facilities to their guests. On the
other hand tourists who have craze for maintaining and continuing their heath
regime while travelling look for the hotels and resorts where they could avail
multiple of wellness facilities like beauty spas, gyms, massage parlors, and
foods for health. Thus, the concept is gaining momentum steadily and with an
increasing awareness of wellness tourism, the concept has been getting importance
across the countries too.
An overview of wellness tourism
There is no doubt that
wellness tourism is gaining importance over the past two decades. Large number
of people is getting attracted to this concept and preferring to go for
vacation in such destinations which serve dual purposes. Still now, wellness
tourism is secondary matter for most of the world tourists, i.e. they look for
wellness facilities and articles only if those are available in the hotels or
the place they are visiting. Globally, there is almost 85% of expenditure on
wellness take place only when tourists feel those are needed or attractive.
Simply speaking 85% expenses made on wellness are done by tourists unplanned
and 15% of expenses were predetermined expenses on wellness1.
In 2013 wellness tourism
economy of the world was worth nearly $438 billion which was almost 13% more
than 2012, and roughly 14% of total global tourism expenditures. It had created
12 million jobs worldwide in 2013. The 525 million trips were made by the wellness
travelers in that financial year accounted for 6% of the total trips made in
the global tourism2. Hence, it can be interpreted that wellness tourism
is a pretty large segment in the tourism industry which is similar in size to
ecotourism and culinary tourism, and larger than sports tourism and medical
tourism.
The trend is enhancing every
year, with the increasing consciousness on health and wellbeing; tourists are
getting more interests in spotting destinations that can mitigate their
lifestyle problems further. They are looking for the tourism destinations where
they would be able to ‘detoxify’ themselves and boost their energies.
Wellness Tourism is evidently a budding market for the
tourism industry. Tourism Industry experts are advising the governments of
countries, authorities of popular destinations and owners of hotels and
restaurants to offer multiple and easily accessible services and choices that
meet the wellness travelers' needs. Already, a number of popular multinational
hotel brands have already taken some significant steps by providing healthy
rooms, healthy meals, fitness centers, yoga classes, massage spas and many
similar types of services. Government authorities are coming forward to
highlight the wellness attractions of their countries or provinces and they are
also creating infrastructure for helping the private players top prepare their
wellness facilities more proficiently.
1. McGroarty Beth, “Europe ranks 1 in global tourism”,
Global Wellness Summit, 2004, http://www.globalwellnesssummit.com/component/content/article?id=832:europe-ranks-no-1-for-wellness-tourism-trips-generates-203-million-annually
2. Ibid.
Wellness Tourism in Europe
Europe is the second biggest
wellness tourism market of the world with almost $159.0 billion expenditures in
2013 alone which is almost 36% of overall wellness tourism expenditure of the
world. Europe ranks highest in the world in the number of wellness trips3.
European wellness trips comprise of mineral baths, naturopathy, saunas, yoga
and many more. France, German, UK, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Turkey and Hungry
etc. have already got huge popularity as wellness destinations of the world.
Some other countries in
Europe like Switzerland, Spain and Austria are also getting ever increasing
importance as wellness destinations both as domestic and international wellness
hub of the world. The annual growth rate of wellness tourism in Russia, Turkey,
Poland and Switzerland are also increasing remarkably, which is clear sign of
improvement in this sector of tourism industry for all the major European
countries.
Feature of Wellness tourism in Switzerland
Wellness tourism in
Switzerland has grown in different levels - Facilities and services provided by
Switzerland tourism, the association of Switzerland Cure institutions and
independent 3 star and 5 star hotels. The major wellness facilities provided by
these three sources are sauna, solarium, whirlpool, steam bath, sport and
fitness hubs and swimming pools. Not all facilities are available in all the
hotels where these facilities made available. The services provided by all
these above mentioned three sources also vary from one hotel to another.
Importance and position of Switzerland in Global wellness
tourism market
Switzerland has always remained one of the most popular
tourism attractions of the world. On the other hand, Tourism is one of the
primary sources of revenue in Switzerland. The increase in tourists’ arrivals
has been increasing steadily since 1996 with an average arrival of 1.2 million
per month, which saw a record increase in August 2014 with almost 2.6 million
arrivals in that month4. The country is popular in the world for its
mountains, lakes, glaciers and rivers. Some of the world’s most popular cities
like Geneva, Zurich, Basel and Ticino also attract millions of world tourists.
3. McGroarty Beth, “Europe ranks 1 in global tourism”,
Global Wellness Summit, 2004, http://www.globalwellnesssummit.com/component/content/article?id=832:europe-ranks-no-1-for-wellness-tourism-trips-generates-203-million-annually
4. Ibid.
The location of the country
is also another reason behind its wide popularity. France is located in the
West of Switzerland, Germany in the north, Austria and Liechtenstein in the
east and Italy in the south. All of these countries including Switzerland are
dominating the European tourism business. Tourists who travel along Europe get
opportunities to visit all these countries at one go.
As the wellness tourism is
getting wider acceptance from the tourists, Switzerland is also getting higher
importance from the tourists. Interestingly, the domestic market as also the
international market of European Union are showing clear sign of improvements
over the past few years. In fact the domestic tourism within the countries of
European Union are much more attractive than any other continents, i.e. to say
Europeans travel to the other countries within Europe more frequently than
Americans travel in other countries in North America or Indians travel in other
parts of Asia. As per statistical data, Switzerland can be considered as one of
the major ‘hotspot’ of wellness tourism in Europe both in the domestic and
international markets.
As per the record available,
in 2013 almost 10.1 million wellness travelers had arrived in Switzerland who
had made almost $11.4 billion expenditures in this country. Switzerland was
positioned in 9th position Globally whereas German, France, Austria
and Italy were in 2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th
position in Global tourism market. Switzerland is also placed among the world’s
fasted growing wellness tourism market were this outstandingly beautiful
country ranks 4th with 8.9% annual increase in expenditures in
wellness related services and products in this country. It is also noticed that
the country is registering an increase of 5.4 million new arrivals every year
since 20125.
Switzerland
is such a country which has the potential to become one of the front runners in
wellness tourism market in the world. In fact every part of this country gets
attention from the visitors due to distinctive natural, historical and
political characteristics. There is a huge scope of expansion of wellness market
because the country is rich in natural resources and abundant of places for
promoting wellness activities including outdoor games like skiing, cycling,
Para gliding and water sports. Switzerland has been facing stiff competition
from all its neighboring countries in this sector and statistics showing the
country is lagging behind German, Austria and Italy in this sector.
5.
McGroarty
Beth, “Europe ranks 1 in global tourism”, Global Wellness Summit, 2004, http://www.globalwellnesssummit.com/component/content/article?id=832:europe-ranks-no-1-for-wellness-tourism-trips-generates-203-million-annually
Though the
country is sufficiently improving in this sector, still more intensive
activities are required to improve in every aspects of wellness tourism.
Promotion of
Switzerland as a wellness tourism destination is the sole responsibility of Switzerland
Tourism Authority. However, some major political and economic issues have made
this destination a less preferred wellness tourism hub in comparison to other
countries in European Union.
Future of wellness tourism in Switzerland
Despite several signs of
surging market of wellness tourism in Switzerland, there are several issues
crippling Swiss tourism including severe labor problems and currency issue.
These problems are major hindrances before the Switzerland which is keeping the
country much behind the other competitors like France, German and Italy.
The
economic condition in Switzerland has remained quite positive over the past few
years. Despite the ongoing pressure due to economic chaos in Europe Switzerland
has shown modest condition in all major industrial aspects. But, several
domestic challenges in Switzerland, such as the poor Swiss franc’s strength
against the euro and comparatively higher expenses the travelers have to incur
for lodging, transportation, food and activities than in other European
countries. As per the experts and statistical data the country is also
considered as one of most expensive winter destinations in Europe. Regardless
of all of these issues, Switzerland has been able to improve earnings from
tourism marketing including wellness tourism marketing. But, that improvement
doesn’t come in comparison to Switzerland’s neighboring countries or other
newly appearing wellness tourism destinations like Russia, Spain and Turkey.
A few intensive market analyses
can reveal the advantages, disadvantages and issues before the wellness tourism
market in Switzerland.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT stands for Strength,
Weakness, Opportunity and Threats. SWOT analysis can easily reveal the present
condition of Switzerland and the aspects where improvements are required.
Strength – Switzerland enjoys
one of the best geographic locations in central Europe. Its rich natural
diversity and proximity to several other developed economies of the world like
German, France or Italy has made this country one of the best wellness tourism
destinations in Europe. The tourism authority in Switzerland has taken several
steps in promoting wellness tourism in the country. Availability of skilled
workers, strong infrastructure and willingness of hotel and restaurant owners
as also tourism companies to promote wellness tourism are the major strength of
the country.
Weakness - Restrictive visa
policy, higher value of franc with respect to Euro, lower investment from
government are the primary hindrances before wellness tourism industry in
Switzerland. The infrastructural facilities against wellness tourism are not
developing as fast as France or German, as a result Switzerland is receiving
less number of tourists in comparison to the other countries in similar
category. The country is also lacking sufficient working force and promotional
facilities to attract tourists from international markets like from Australia
and Asia.
Opportunities – Switzerland
has huge scope to develop wellness tourism market in the country. It’s
diversified natural resources, strong infrastructure, good percentage of skill
labor force, good reputation in international market and above all century old
experience in wellness tourism can make it the leader in wellness tourism
market. The country also possesses good relation with neighboring countries especially
with German; as a result they get opportunity to bring skill workers in case of
scarcity in that sector.
Threats – Stiff competition
from the other European countries is the major threat to Switzerland. The
facilities offered in the hotel and resorts in other countries are considered
much more attractive and less expensive in comparison to other competitors in
European markets.
Interpretation of SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis reveals that
there is an immense scope for improvement in wellness tourism in Switzerland.
They have to take some drastic initiative to strengthen core areas in this
industry. The authority as well as tourism organizations also need to promote
Switzerland as wellness tourism hub in Europe more vigorously in international
market. Hotel and resort facilities need to be less expensive or should extend
more services at the same price keep competition with the neighboring countries
alive.
As SWOT analysis shows the
core areas were Switzerland still lagging behind their nearest competitors,
Ansoff Matrix shows four different growth strategies Switzerland can undertake
to enhance their competitive advantage in domestic and international markets.
Ansoff Matrix takes into
account the following four aspects:
Market Penetration – It
means compete in the market more vigorously to grasp more market than the
competitors. Market penetration strategy is less risky and less expensive
because no new options or resources are needed to generate higher market niche.
Since, Switzerland is already growing as a wellness tourist destination,
government and other responsible authorities there only need to strengthen
their existing infrastructure, promotional system, higher market exposure in
specially in those markets where the country have not got much attention.
Market Development – It
entails new markets where from Switzerland has not got any attention neither
the wellness tourism industry in Switzerland has tried to develop new markets
there. They should concentrate on newer opportunities in several Asian, African
and American countries like Argentina, Brazil, India, China, Japan, South
Africa etc. Rapid economic development in these countries has been creating
large number of financially sound families who prefer to travel in different
parts of the world. A planned market development strategy will enable
Switzerland to get attention from tourists in these countries.
Facility and Service
Development – The wellness tourism in Switzerland is based on the facilities
provided by the hotels such as sauna, stem bath, swimming pool, whirl pool,
medical center and fitness center. The services provided by the hotels and
resorts include massage, supervised outdoor sports, recreational services and
refreshment services. Apart from hotels and restaurants several cure centers in
Switzerland provides similar facilities and services. In order to attract
tourists from international market, hotels and resorts, tourists’ associations
and tourism policy makers in Switzerland need to emphasize more on the market
demand, better and upgraded facilities and more specialized services.
Diversification - Though
it’s known as the riskiest part in any kind of market expansion, Switzerland
needs a cooperative approach in expanding its wellness tourism. The country
needs cooperation from authority, hotel and resort owners and all other stake
holders to develop wellness facilities and services as also expand in new
markets to promote wellness tourism in Switzerland.
Sustainable wellness tourism development is Switzerland
Government needs to
emphasize on quality management as far as wellness tourism is concerned. Top
quality of facilities and services are vital to ahead in international
competition and compete with able rivals within the wellness market. A decent
wellness infrastructure, professional services and qualified staffs are the
minimum requirements for providing comprehensive wellness services to the
guests.
People from higher economic
strata in any country show interest in wellness tourism, hence hotel and resorts
providing such services and promoting the concept on behalf of their countries
should take every matter very seriously. Switzerland needs an all-around
development as evident from the Ansoff matrix. Right from basic facilities to
expert support system, every single aspect needs certain changes to get
competitive advantage over the nearest competitors.
A sustainable wellness
tourism development is not possible without involving all the stake holders
related with the industry. Government should involve all in this matter to
provide Switzerland greater leverage with the already existing resources
employed in the industry.
Major challenges before the
authority are the following (Tosun, 2001) -
1. Level of priority given to tourism including wellness
tourism in national economy.
2. Lack of necessary development approach.
3. Structure of the central and local administrative system
that are involved in tourism industry.
4. Level of importance given on environmental issues and
tourists’ concern over those issues.
5. Commercialization of wellness tourism in the country and
government’s control over it.
6. Structure of international tourism system and the
country’s compatibility with that system.
A close analysis of this
above challenges and working on those matters will enable the authority to
create strategy for overall growth in wellness tourism sector.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly Switzerland is
one of the most popular destinations in Europe and its wellness tourism is also
growing rapidly. But Switzerland has the opportunity to record more growth in
wellness tourism than they are presently showing. Certain hindrances are
lagging the country behind the major competitors like France, German and Italy.
As evident from the SWOT analysis there are not many weaknesses obstructing
progress of wellness tourism in the country. The Ansoff matrix is also showing
how the country can take opportunity of the newer markets and developed
facilities and services to expand their wellness tourism sector. Focusing on
the major challenges and taking necessary steps to mitigate those issues can give
this naturally beautiful country some extra mileage in wellness tourism sector.
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Hall, C. M., Tourism
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Pearson Education Ltd, 2000
Gutsul, D., Strategic
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