QCOSTARICA – Sustained growth has been projected in “wellness” tourism in the region, which still needs to make efforts to differentiate promotion of this type of tourism from medical tourism.
In Guatemala, the category of wellness tourism is included under medical tourism, but authorities intend to identify separate specific promotion mechanisms for each of the segments.
In Costa Rica, figures from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) indicate that “… According to the aerial survey of foreigners in 2014, which is conducted quarterly at international airports in the country, about 38% of tourists said they had taken part in wellness activities during their stay. ”
Estrategiaynegocios.net reports that “… The organization Global Wellness Institute estimated in 2013 that, overall, one out of every seven dollars spent on tourism goes to the wellness sector, which amounted to US$439,000 million that year. According to Susie Ellis, CEO of Global Wellness Institute. By 2017 the company expects the same industry to approach US$680,000 million … studies by the organization recognize Central America as a region with a reputation built around ecological wellness lodgings, which, it is predicted, will continue to grow and expand thanks to an emphasis on nature and sustainability which is resonating around the world.
In this sense, he adds: “We see expansion in Central America, in the luxury category as well as in more accessible categories. ”
This article originally appeared on Centralamericandata.com
While wellness tourism is often correlated with medical tourism because health interests motivate the traveler, wellness tourists are proactive in seeking to improve or maintain health and quality of life, often focusing on prevention, while medical tourists generally travel reactively to receive treatment for a diagnosed disease or condition.
Latin America-Caribbean is the fourth largest region for wellness tourism in terms of number of trips and expenditures. Domestic tourism accounts for about 71 percent of wellness tourism trips, and 54 percent of wellness tourism expenditures.
