The Routledge Handbook of Health Tourism

The Routledge Handbook of Health Tourism provides a comprehensive and cutting-edge overview of the philosophical, conceptual and managerial issues in the field of health tourism with contributions from more than 30 expert academics and practitioners from around the world. Terms that are used frequently when defining health tourism, such as wellbeing, wellness, holistic, medical and spiritual, are analysed and explored, as is the role that health and health tourism play in quality-of-life enhancement, wellbeing, life satisfaction and happiness. An overview is provided of health tourism facilities such as thermal waters, spas, retreats and wellness hotels and the various challenges inherent in managing these profitably and sustainably. Typologies are given not only of subsectors of health tourism and related activities but also of destinations, such as natural landscapes, historic townscapes or individual resources or attractions around which whole infrastructures have been developed. Attention is paid to some of the lifestyle changes that are taking place in societies which influence consumer behaviour, motivations and demand for health tourism, including government policies, regulations and ethical considerations. This significant volume offers the reader a comprehensive synthesis of this field, conveying the latest thinking and research. The text is international in focus, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study and will be an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in health tourism.

ContentsList of figuresList of tables ContributorsForeword 1. Introduction Section One: History and Trends2. History of Spa Tourism: Spirituality, Rejuvenation and SocialisationWarwick Frost and Jennifer Laing 3. An Overview of Lifestyle Trends and their Impacts on Health TourismMelanie Kay Smith 4. Leading Taste: The Influence of Trendsetters on Health TourismJennifer Laing and Warwick Frost Section Two: Happiness, Wellbeing and Quality of Life 5. Between Tourists: Tourism and HappinessOndrej Mitas, Jeroen Nawijn and Barbara Jongsma 6. The Impact of Tourist Activities on Tourists' Subjective WellbeingMuzaffer Uysal, M. Joseph Sirgy, Eunju Woo and Hyelin (Lina) Kim7. Finding Flow during a Vacation: Using Optimal Experiences to Improve HealthJohn K. Coffey and Mihály CsikszentmihályiSection Three: Health, Tourism and Society8. Healthy TourismRobyn Bushell 9. Social Tourism and HealthScott McCabe and Anya Diekmann10. A Life-Course Analysis of Older Tourists and their Changing Patterns of Holiday BehaviorGareth Shaw, Isabelle Cloquet, Paul Cleave, Andrzej Tucki, Maria João F. Custódio, and Alessandra Theuma Section Four: Holistic Wellbeing 11. The Psychology of Spa: the Science of ’Holistic’ WellbeingJeremy McCarthy 12. Journeys of the Self: The Need to RetreatCatherine Kelly and Melanie Kay Smith 13. Community as Holistic Healer on Health Holiday Retreats: The Case of SkyrosDina Glouberman and Josée Cloutier 14. Yoga, Transformation and TourismMelanie Kay Smith and Ivett SzivaSection Five: Medical Tourism: Ethics, Regulation and Policy 15. The Ethics of Medical TravelDavid Reisman 16. The Environmental Externalities of Medical and Health Tourism: Implications for Global Public Health Colin Michael Hall 17. Legal and Ethical Issues of Cross-Border Reproductive Care from an EU PerspectiveMarkus Frischhut 18. The Need to Professionalize EstheticiansKathryn Gallagher and Marion JoppeSection Six: Medical Tourism: Products and Services19. Choosing the Good Hospital: Helping Medical Tourists Make Informed DecisionsSharon Kleefield20. Medical Hotels – an Approach to Sustainable Health in the Leisure IndustryKai Illing 21. A Disney Strategic Approach to Patient/Guest Services in Hospitality Bridging Healthcare (H2H) and Medical Tourism and WellnessFrederick J. DeMicco 22. Balneology and Health TourismMelanie Kay Smith and László PuczkóSection Seven: Health Destination Development and Management 23. Enhancing the Competitiveness of a Wellness Tourism Destination by Coordinating the Multiple Actor CollaborationTelle Tuominen, Susanna Saari and Daniel Binder 24. Cross-Border Health Tourism Collaborations: Opportunities and ChallengesHenna Konu and Melanie Smith 25. Destination and Product Development Rested on Evidence-based Health TourismGeorg Christian Steckenbauer, Stephanie Tischler, Arnulf Hartl and Christina Pichler 26. Developing a Wellness Destination: A Case Study of the Peak DistrictSarah Rawlinson and Peter WiltshierSection Eight: Therapeutic and Healing Landscapes 27. ’Places of Power’: Can individual ’sacred space’ help regain orientation in a confusing worldHarald A. Friedl 28. Rhythmic revitalisations: Attuning to nature for health and wellbeingEdward H. Huijbens 29. Relationships between emotion regulation seeking, program satisfaction, attention restoration, and life satisfaction: Healing program participantsTimothy J. Lee and Jinok Susanna Kim 30. Health Tourism and Health Promotion at the CoastPeter KruizingaSection Nine: Nature, Health and Tourism 31. Rural Wellbeing Tourism Destinations – Demand Side ViewpointJuho Pesonen and Anja Tuohino 32. Protected natural areas as innovative health tourism destinationsSonia Ferrari and Monica Gilli 33. Understanding the Links Between Wellness and Indigenous Tourism in Western Canada: Critical Sites of Cultural Exchange John Hull and Courtney Mason34. Conclusion

Melanie Kay Smith is Associate Professor at Budapest Metropolitan University in the School of Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality. She is the co-author of the book Health, Tourism and Hospitality: Spas, Wellness and Medical Travel (Routledge, 2013) with Dr László Puczkó and has worked for over ten years on health tourism, including research, lecturing and the publication of several journal articles and book chapters. She has been an invited keynote speaker at many international conferences, and has undertaken health tourism consultancy work in a range of countries, including for the European Travel Commission and United Nations World Tourism Organization. She has most recently been working on Baltic health tourism and Balkan wellbeing concepts, as well as a European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) project on tourism, wellbeing and ecosystem services. Her most recent teaching and research focus on evidence-based healing resources and therapies. László Puczkó is the Director of Industry Intelligence at Resources for Leisure Assets and the Head of Tourism and Leisure Knowledge Centre at the Budapest Metropolitan University (Hungary). He has been working as a travel and tourism expert in the health, wellness, medical services and spa arenas for over 20 years. He founded the Tourism Observatory for Health, Wellness and Spa in 2012. He has participated in more than a hundred projects in various fields: research, planning, product development, experience mapping and design, impact assessment and marketing. László is an internationally known and acknowledged expert; he lectures at various international professional and academic conferences and congresses. He is the (co-)author of numerous specialised books (e.g. Health, Tourism and Hospitality (Routledge, 2013), Impacts of Tourism (Häme Polytechnic, 2002)) and articles in professional journals.