Towards a better understanding of memorable wellness tourism experience

Sthapit, Erose ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1650-3900, Bjork, Peter and Coudounaris, Dafnis N (2023) Towards a better understanding of memorable wellness tourism experience. International Journal of Spa and Wellness, 6 (1). pp. 1-27. ISSN 2472-1735

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Abstract

The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has raised awareness of the importance of physical, mental and spiritual wellness, and many consumers (tourists) are turning to holistic approaches to their health and well-being. This study tests a new model of memorable wellness tourism experience by examining the effects of novelty, experience co-creation, experiencescape, refreshment and involvement. This study also examines the relationship between memorable wellness tourism experience, subjective well-being and revisit intention. Data were gathered from 272 tourists who had recently undertaken a holiday, whose main motivation to undertake this trip was wellness, and who participated in a wellness activity within the six months preceding the data collection period (January–June 2022). An online survey questionnaire was distributed through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) in July 2022. This study’s main contributions include the extension of the memorable tourism experience concept by including other key factors that influence tourists’ memorable wellness tourism experiences. The relationship between memorable wellness tourism experience, subjective well-being and revisit intention was also shown to be significant.