ABSTRACT
Regardless of their age, gender or cultural background, humans naturally gravitate towards wanting to be well and are prepared to invest in the future of their wellness, including travelling to destinations where their wellness can be enhanced. This chapter demonstrates that the wellness tourism sector can offer a broad spectrum of educational, aesthetic, escapist or even entertaining experiences. These range from hedonic spa treatments offering relaxation and temporary stress relief to retreat programmes that can help to transform one’s life and to develop new skills or spiritual practices that can be transcendent leading to a new sense of self and purpose. Different wellness experiences may be desired according to age and gender, cultural and religious background, as well as life-stage. In terms of experience creation, research on spa and wellness facilities highlights the importance of an attractive, clean environment and calm atmosphere, friendly empathetic staff, and a smooth, reliable process. Wellness experiences can also be personalized, customized or co-created according to individual characteristics and personality traits or even the guest’s mood at that moment. The chapter emphasizes the need for innovative wellness experience creation as an important social and business proposition for many years to come.
