Source: Xellum

Health, Tourism and Hospitality: Spas, wellness and medical travel, Second Edition takes an in-depth and comprehensive look at the growing health, wellness and medical tourism sectors in a global context. The book analyses the history and development of the industries, the way in which they are managed and organised, the expanding range of new and innovative products and trends, and the marketing of destinations, products and services.

The only book to offer a complete overview and introduction to health, tourism and

hospitality, this Second Edition has been updated to include:
  • Expanded coverage to the hospitality sector with a particular focus on spa management.
  • New content on medical tourism throughout the book, to reflect the worldwide growth in medical travel with more and more countries entering this competitive market.
  • Updated content to reflect recent issues and trends including ageing population, governments encouraging preventative health, consumer use of contemporary and alternative therapies, self- help market, impacts of economic recession, spa management and customer loyalty.
  • New case studies taken from a range of different countries and contexts, and focusing on established or new destinations, products and services such as conventional medicine, complementary and alternative therapies, lifestyle- based wellness, beauty and cosmetics, healthy nutrition, longevity and anti- (or active)-ageing, amongst others (Excerpt from the Introduction).

Written in a user- friendly style, this is essential reading for the wellness, spa and

medical travel industries as well as students studying health, tourism and hospitality.

About the Authors

Dr Melanie Smith has worked for more than ten years on issues

relating to health, wellness and spa tourism, including research and consultancy projects and the publication of several journal articles and book chapters. She has also lectured on health tourism in Hungary, Germany and Estonia. She has been an international Advisor in Health Tourism for the Global Spa Summit as well as the ETC and UNWTO, amongst others. She has been an invited Keynote Speaker at international Health and Wellness Conferences in numerous countries.

Dr László Puczkó founded The Tourism Observatory for Health,

Wellness and Spa (2012). He is currently Head of Tourism at Xellum Advisory Ltd and also the Head of the School of Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality (BKF University of Applied Sciences Budapest). He has participated in more than a hundred projects many of which were for international clients such as the Global Spa Summit, ETC and UNWTO.

He is an internationally known expert and trainer in health, wellness, medical and spa

tourism and he lectures at various international professional and academic conferences.

The structure of the book

Part I: History and development of health, wellness and medical

tourism
  • Definitions and concepts
  • A historical overview
  • A geographical and regional analysis
  • Leisure, lifestyle and society

Part II: Managing and marketing health, wellness and medical

tourism
  • Demand and motivation of tourists
  • Targeting and branding
  • Planning and management
  • Future trends and predictions

Part III: The international context for health, wellness and medical tourism:

case studies
  • Spa developments
  • Health tourism destinations
  • Well- being, holistic and spiritual tourism
  • Medical tourism and medical wellness

Case studies include countries such as Brazil, Taiwan, Hungary, UK, Australia, Egypt,

India, Costa Rica, USA, Finland, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Canada, Estonia and many more. http://www.thetourismobservatory.org/.

Puczkó László
Managing director
+36 1 269 1920
Xellum