The tourism/wellness connection

"Summertime, and the livin' is easy." Vacation travelers hit the road and the major tourist season is in full swing. Some travelers may be seeking "Far away places with strange sounding names," while others choose to pursue camping and hiking as they explore the wonders of nature. As one who personally embraces dynamic wellness as a lifestyle, I wondered how or if the tourism professionals considered wellness as a part of tourism. While enroute home from a recent recreation/tourism conference, I decided to query Dr. Jeffrey B. Zeiger, director of the Center for the Advancement and Study of Tourism at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota, on this topic.

This dialogue focuses on ways an individual might enjoy being a tourist while maintaining or enhancing what is already a healthful lifestyle. But first let's see what we mean by a wellness lifestyle and tourism.

Wellness

The wellness concept embraces an energetic, dynamic approach to health. It centers upon individuals taking charge of their health. it means much more than freedom from disease. Wellness can have a distinctively personal approach, attitude, or mind-set. Wellness is a personally developed growth process that is ever-changing; a plan leading toward health and well-being. Wellness is a matter of personal responsibility and choice and may be demonstrated by physical development, positive use of the mind, acceptance of the importance of daily activity, constructive management of stress energy and emotions, environmental sensitivity, ability to have productive relations with other people and a developing sense of inner peace and security. Wellness has become a way of life for many who believe that they are in charge of their destiny and make choices accordingly.

While tourism may promote the better known physical fitness aspects of wellness, the lesser known are equally worthy of attention. How might a lifestyle of dynamic wellness be accommodated or, better, enhanced as people travel? Many choose to become tourists on weekend or vacation time. Must they abandon their wellness lifestyle or can a wellness lifestyle be profitably combined with the activities as a tourist?

Tourism

Tourism, like wellness, has been defined in many ways. Definitions include: ". . . travel with the exception of commuting;" ". . . temporary movement of people to destinations outside their normal places of work and residence, ... activities undertaken during their stay in those destinations, and the facilities created to cater to their needs." Accordingly, "A tourist is any person visiting a country other than that in which he [sic] has his usual place of residence, for any reason other than following an occupation remunerated from within the country visited."

Given these definitions, let's explore the possible contributions, connections and impacts of tourism on each of the several dimensions of wellness. We want to discover how tourism can help the traveler promote personal wellness. For these purposes let's cons five critical areas of a wellness lifestyle: physical, intellectual, social, environmental, spiritual and emotional.

Physical Wellness

The best known of the wellness areas is physical wellness. The benefits of fitness are highly touted. Becoming "physically fit" appears to be a generally healthy trend as people realize that physical activity can play preventive, therapeutic and recreational roles. A person practicing physical wellness knows about nutrition, exercise and personal hygiene, and applies this knowledge to everyday life.

What is the tourism connection for physical wellness?

ZEIGER. A tourism/physical wellness connection does exist. One can be physically challenged with different activities. For example, organized walks along the Himalayas, Andes and Alps, or through remote areas of the United States can elevate physical and mental adventures. Other examples of the connection exist in the Rails-to-Trails program that offers opportunities for physical activity along old railroad avenues.

Resort health spas offer a variety of fitness programs. Each day is filled with a focus on a healthy combination of exercise, relaxation, education and dining. Tourism and physical wellness are connected and offer the traveler many opportunities for promoting and enhancing this aspect of well-being.

Intellectual Wellness

Intellectual wellness is the next area for consideration. This involves pursuing lifelong learning, planning and developing strategies to stay stimulated by new ideas, and applying skills and knowledge to develop personal goals.

Is there a connection between tourism and intellectua wellness?

ZEIGER: I think so. For example, there is "life-seeing tourism," a structured program in any locale that arranges tourist visits to local homes or, alternatively, a plan whereby tourists are accommodated for a few days in local homes. This concept promotes attracting and hosting tourists. This enterprise attracts tourists, develops facilities and promotes programs that invite access to cultural expressions. These might include the fine arts, music and dance, handicrafts, food and drink, industry and business, agriculture, education, language and literature, science, government, religion, history and prehistory. These activities focus tourists' experiences toward intellectual wellness. People become enriched when they make a sincere effort to become better acquainted with people.

Then there are the educational aspects that people of all ages pursue by travel. They seek to learn or to practice a language, to study an art form, a culture, a wine, or a cuisine. Elderhostel programs allow the older adult opportunity for both physical and mental enrichment. As we approach the year 2000, it is important to keep in mind that those most avid travellers are older people. These "new old" are better educated, better informed and have a wider knowledge of the world than any previous geriatric generation.

Environmental Wellness

Individuals practicing environmental wellness work toward conserving natural resources and are sensitive to the environment. It seems that there might be a conflict between promoting wellness and promoting tourism. Some tourist attractions seem to exploit the environment and tourists often are noted for the amount of litter they leave behind.

How do you view this connection?

ZEIGER: Let's first clarify the semantic phrase, environmental wellness. I think it might be called eco-wellness and located within the framework of eco-tourism. Eco-tourism is capturing the minds of more and more individuals throughout the world. There are two forms of eco-tourism, one is passive and one is active. Passive eco-tourism is exemplified by quietly watching or photographing birds or animals in the wild. This compares to active eco-tourism as exemplified by hands-on experience--people actually doing physical labor, such as cleaning up the environment after an oil spill. Either activity may fulfill an individual's environmental wellness need.

Tourism and travel must respond to global and environmental concerns. Much of environmental wellness/eco-wellness and eco-tourism is directed toward sheltering the environment from our destructiveness, while allowing us to experience those things that we want to get our hands on.

Social Wellness

Social wellness is characterized by a person who enjoys and interacts well with people of both sexes, different backgrounds, lifestyles, cultures and ages; one who is capable of developing and cultivating close friendships. A balance between work and leisure is recognized and time is budgeted for recreation and leisure. This wellness area should readily lend itself to a tourism connection.

How do you visualize 6 connection?

ZEIGER: Tourism offers several avenues to social wellness. For the lone traveler or for a group, tourism allows for congenial linkages. Culturally, this connection enhances the expressions of people that add to the attractiveness of travel. This, in turn, adds to the wellness/tourism connection. Tourism can help people pair up, to link with interests, locations, concerns, or whatever happens to be of shared importance to them while they are on vacation. Using modern technology, tourism can link people to people, prospective destinations and host communities. This is the social wellness connection.

Emotional and Spiritual Wellness

An individual who strives for emotional and spiritual wellness is one who endeavors to meet emotional needs constructively, by adopting positive attitudes and appropriate dealings with stress while maintaining a realistic outlook. This individual achieves a comfortable self-image and self-esteem and is aware of the aesthetic dimensions of life. An individual with spiritual wellness might be characterized as one who strives for a sense of satisfaction and confidence to help support a sense of inner peace and security. This individual cares about the welfare of humanity and acts upon that concern.

How can tourism help an individual affirm or sustain emotional and spiritual wellness?

ZEIGER: According to Richard Knopf from Arizona State University, the "tourist experience--just like any other form of recreational experience--can be life-changing in a powerful way." I totally agree with this statement. Knopf goes on to state that: "tourists are in pursuit of life-changing experiences. They are questing for an expansion of perspective. For many, a tourist experience is their chance, a rare one at that, to frame a broader context of life by exploring how other people find meaning or how past cultures have found meaning." In essence, tourism experiences, ranging from a week of boundary water fishing to a week of biking in the Black Hills, can help individuals affirm or sustain emotional and spiritual wellness by enriching the quality of personal life.

The conceptual relationship between tourism and wellness is a potentially powerful one. Both are gaining momentum nationally and locally. Both are holistic in nature. The concept of wellness as a lifestyle focuses on the wholeness of life. The concept of tourism encompasses and amplifies whole life experiences.

Individuals who adopt wellness as a lifestyle assume responsibility for their behavior. They believe in total health, and by making a commitment to their well-being, do something about it. Similarly, tourism enhances lifestyle experiences. Individuals with a wellness bent, who go on vacation, do not have to abandon that lifestyle. Indeed, they may find that every aspect of their well-being may be enhanced by tourism.

COPYRIGHT 1993 National Recreation and Park Association
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group