Navigating Wellness Tourism: Strategic Approaches to Destination Mapping of the Offer

Amélie Cloutier (), Mathilde Plard (), Marc-Antoine Vachon and Patrick Coulombe
Additional contact information
Amélie Cloutier: ESG-UQAM - École des Sciences de la Gestion [UQAM] - UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal
Mathilde Plard: ESO - Espaces et Sociétés - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UM - Le Mans Université - UA - Université d'Angers - UR2 - Université de Rennes 2 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Nantes Univ - IGARUN - Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement Régional de l'Université de Nantes - Nantes Université - pôle Humanités - Nantes Univ - Nantes Université - Institut Agro Rennes Angers - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement, ESG-UQAM - École des Sciences de la Gestion [UQAM] - UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal
Marc-Antoine Vachon: UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal
Patrick Coulombe: ESG-UQAM - École des Sciences de la Gestion [UQAM] - UQAM - Université du Québec à Montréal = University of Québec in Montréal

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: By the end of the 1990s, the tourism industry worldwide had begun to pay attention to health and wellness (Sopha et al., 2019). However, the numerous definitions and typologies of wellness tourism present significant challenges in effectively mapping the offerings within a destination. This study addresses critical gaps by offering a comprehensive methodology to map wellness tourism offerings in a destination, leveraging and adapting key typologies. It builds on the conceptual frameworks of Kemppainen et al. (2021) and Kaspar et al. (2019) to clarify the contours of wellness tourism, and adopts the 10-component offer system identified by Dini and Pencarelli (2021) as a structuring framework. The methodology combines a k-medoids cluster analysis (Gower distance) and a strategic group approach (Porter, 1980), drawing on Cloutier, Vachon & Coulombe (2024). Quebec, Canada, is used as a case study to illustrate how a destination can leverage its local strengths — particularly Nordic spas and cold exposure practices — to meet the growing demand for immersive and sustainable wellness experiences. The findings offer actionable insights for practitioners, contribute to global academic discussions, and align with industry efforts to meet evolving consumer demands.

Keywords: Quebec; strategic group analysis; cluster analysis; cold exposure; Nordic spa; destination mapping; wellness tourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-06-24
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05769476v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in TTRA International Conference 2025, Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA), Jun 2025, Galway, Ireland

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-05769476v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05769476

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().