Main description:

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.

Contents:

List of figures

List of tables

List of contributors

Preface

1 Introduction

Melanie Kay Smith and Laszlo Puczko

PART I History and trends

2 History of spa tourism: spirituality, rejuvenation and socialisation

Warwick Frost and Jennifer Laing

3 An overview of lifestyle trends and their impacts on health tourism

Melanie Kay Smith

4 Leading taste: the influence of trendsetters on health tourism

Jennifer Laing and Warwick Frost

PART II Happiness, wellbeing and quality of life

5 Between tourists: tourism and happiness

Ondrej Mitas, Jeroen Nawijn and Barbara Jongsma

6 The impact of tourist activities on tourists' subjective wellbeing

Muzaffer Uysal, M. Joseph Sirgy, Eunju Woo and Hyelin (Lina) Kim

7 Finding flow during a vacation: using optimal experiences to improve health

John K. Coffey and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

PART III Health, tourism and society

8 Healthy tourism

Robyn Bushell

9 Social tourism and health

Anya Diekmann and Scott McCabe

10 A life-course analysis of older tourists and their changing patterns of holiday behaviour

Gareth Shaw, Isabelle Cloquet, Paul Cleave, Andrzej Tucki, Maria Joao F. Custodio and Alessandra Theuma

PART IV Holistic wellbeing

11 The psychology of spa: the science of 'holistic' wellbeing

Jeremy McCarthy

12 Journeys of the self: the need to retreat

Catherine Kelly and Melanie Kay Smith

13 Community as holistic healer on health holiday retreats: the case of Skyros

Dina Glouberman and Josee-Ann Cloutier

14 Yoga, transformation and tourism 168

Melanie Kay Smith and Ivett Sziva

PART V Medical tourism: ethics, regulation and policy

15 The ethics of medical travel

David 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 perspective

Markus Frischhut

18 The need to professionalise aestheticians

Kathryn Gallagher and Marion Joppe

PART VI Medical tourism: products and services

19 Choosing the good hospital: helping medical tourists make informed decisions

Sharon Kleefield

20 Medical hotels: an approach to sustainable health in the leisure industry

Kai Illing

21 A Disney strategic approach to patient/guest services in Hospitality Bridging Healthcare (H2H) and medical tourism and wellness

Frederick J. DeMicco

22 Balneology and health tourism

Melanie Kay Smith and Laszlo Puczko

PART VII Health destination development and management

23 Enhancing the competitiveness of a wellness tourism destination by coordinating the multiple actor collaboration

Telle Tuominen, Susanna Saari and Daniel Binder

24 Cross-border health tourism collaborations: opportunities and challenges

Henna Konu and Melanie Kay Smith

25 Destination and product development rested on evidence-based health tourism

Georg Christian Steckenbauer, Stephanie Tischler, Arnulf Hartl and Christina Pichler

26 Developing a wellness destination: a case study of the Peak District

Sarah Rawlinson and Peter Wiltshier

PART VIII Therapeutic and healing landscapes

27 'Places of power': can individual 'sacred space' help regain orientation in a confusing world? A discussion of mental health tourism to extraordinary natural sites in the context of Antonovsky's 'sense of coherence' and Maslow's 'hierarchy of needs'

Harald A. Friedl

28 Rhythmic revitalisations: attuning to nature for health and wellbeing

Edward H. Huijbens

29 Relationships between emotion regulation seeking, programme satisfaction, attention restoration and life satisfaction: healing programme participants

Timothy J. Lee and Jinok Susanna Kim

30 Health tourism and health promotion at the coast

Peter Kruizinga

PART IX Nature, health and tourism

31 Rural wellbeing tourism destinations - demand side viewpoint

Juho Pesonen and Anja Tuohino

32 Protected natural areas as innovative health tourism destinations

Sonia Ferrari and Monica Gilli

33 Understanding the links between wellness and Indigenous tourism in western Canada: critical sites of cultural exchange

John S. Hull and Courtney W. Mason

34 Conclusion

Melanie Kay Smith and Laszlo Puczko

Index