ABSTRACT
According to the United Nations Population Fund (2020), half of the world's population live in cities, and the number is estimated to rise to 75% by 2050. Although urbanization is seen as a major challenge from a health point of view, the development of urban wellness tourism offering would ideally benefit both tourists and locals. The growth rate of wellness tourism during the years 2015–2017 was almost twice as fast as global economic growth. Holistic wellness refers to the balanced elements of body, mind and spirit. This study argues that many European city destinations could provide the holistic wellness elements to their visitors.Tourism destinations continue competing with each other in a globalised marketplace, even more post-Covid-19. As a result, cities will invest considerable resources in their marketing activities and place branding. By recognizing and highlighting wellness tourism offering in their marketing, some urban Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) could stand out in this growing competition and get their share of wellness tourism growth.This study examines, which elements contributing to holistic wellness are currently being displayed on the visit.com websites of selected urban DMOs (N = 32) in the European Union. This is done using qualitative content analysis methodology. The findings indicate that there are several European cities that already display elements of urban wellness in their marketing. The practical implication for the DMOs in question could be to actively start developing their place brands towards urban wellness tourism niche by highlighting the supply of urban wellness they already have, for example, at their visit.com sites.
ABSTRACT
The relevance of sustainable tourism policies that aim to balance the positive and negative impacts of tourism has become particularly evident during the COVID-19 crisis, which has shown the need for more research on the impact of crises on tourism policy. The findings of this study are based on twenty-four in-depth interviews with tourism organisations responsible for tourism policy development across the globe, showing that policymakers are (1) aware of the relevance of the development of sustainable tourism during the crisis, (2) agendas such as strategies for sustainable tourism are being developed and policies do translate into (3) measures related to environmental, economic, socio-cultural and community instruments. This study carries value for the development of sustainable tourism research following the theory on the penetration of environmental awareness and also informs about the variation in sustainable tourism policies in different countries and across continents. © 2023 The Authors
ABSTRACT
The relevance of sustainable tourism policies that aim to balance the positive and negative impacts of tourism has become particularly evident during the COVID-19 crisis, which has shown the need for more research on the impact of crises on tourism policy. The findings of this study are based on twenty-four in-depth interviews with tourism organisations responsible for tourism policy development across the globe, showing that policymakers are (1) aware of the relevance of the development of sustainable tourism during the crisis, (2) agendas such as strategies for sustainable tourism are being developed and policies do translate into (3) measures related to environmental, economic, socio-cultural and community instruments. This study carries value for the development of sustainable tourism research following the theory on the penetration of environmental awareness and also informs about the variation in sustainable tourism policies in different countries and across continents.