Inspiring Breathwork Retreats in the Post-COVID-19 Period

Milan Hosta and Matej Plevnik
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Milan Hosta: University of Primorska, Slovenia
Matej Plevnik: University of Primorska, Slovenia

Academica Turistica - Tourism and Innovation Journal, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 123-133

Abstract: The impact of the global tourist lockdown due to the pandemic dimensions of COVID-19 in 2020 and the beginning of 2021 has shaken the industry to its core. The industry of mass tourism has certainly suffered a great knockout, a kind of acute respiratory constriction, a functional collapse that on an organic level would appear as coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, tiredness, a life-threatening difficulty in breathing. In this paper, we used the concept of hyperventilation as understood by medicine to seek an organic understanding of the crisis that has hit tourist services. The study used a qualitative research technique, namely the single case study of a healthy man at the age of 51, who was going through a health-enhancing breathing protocol. The conclusions were derived based on inductive reasoning. The pattern and results of expected organic changes due to the breathing protocol were transferred by analogy to the institutionalized level of tourism. Since we focused on changes and patterns to be reflected organically, the detailed symptoms or initial disbalance of the individual in the case study were irrelevant for our conclusions. Physiologically, hyperventilation in humans results in tissue hypoxia, meaning that less oxygen is delivered to cells. Similar logic can be transferred to hyperinflated mass tourism booming in recent years, negatively impacting the indigenous social and natural environment. The results of the expert-based and scientifically justified 5-week breathing interventions are presented via a case study. The improvement of major factors and qualitative interpretation from the subject itself has provided us with sufficient outcomes that can be used (1) in designing preventive and post-COVID health regenerative retreats as tourist products and (2) as a model to support the tourism industry with an understanding of sustainable niche-market solutions.

Keywords: innovative tourism; preventive retreats; wellness; breathing programme; motivation; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:prp:jattij:v:15:y:2022:i:1:p:123-133

DOI: 10.26493/2335-4194.15.123-133

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