Invest in medical and wellness travel, says WTTC

A new report ‘Investing in Travel and Tourism’ from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) provides investment recommendations for governments and destinations as they rebuild and grow tourism. It highlights key segments that could attract investors, including medical and wellness tourism. Ian Youngman investigates.

The WTTC report recommends that governments and destinations should invest in and attract investment from the private sector in areas such as physical and digital infrastructure, as well as in travel segments such as wellness, medical, women, LGBTQI, and accessible tourism.

To attract investors, the report suggests destinations must have an effective enabling environment, including incentives such as smart taxation, travel facilitation policies, diversification, integration of health and hygiene, effective communication, and a skilled and trained workforce.

The WTTC says that key to revival will be public-private partnerships, but investors will look for reassurance on safety and security, alongside political stability and a well-established rule of law, as pre-requisites for investment.

The report highlights those segments that could be most attractive to investors and high up on the list are medical tourism and wellness tourism.

Opportunities for medical tourism

While not providing the source for the statistics used, the report states: “International spending on medical tourism services witnessed an average annual growth of around 9% in nominal terms and a total growth of 358% between 2000 and 2017. This strong growth is expected to continue as consumers increasingly look to travel abroad for access to quality care, safety, privacy, lower cost procedures, as well as procedures that are not available in their home countries. A growing number of countries are gradually recognising the opportunities of medical tourism as a catalyst for social and economic development. Bringing together the medical and tourism sectors synergistically not only supports quality education, highly skilled workers, favourable visa policies and accessible and well-developed infrastructure within a country, but also allows for the promotion of a country’s attractiveness. Therefore, governments are increasingly lending their support to this sub-sector.”

The report recommends the following elements should be considered as governments develop their medical tourism strategies and policies:

• Establishing smart regulation and recognised accreditation/certification of medical practitioners and facilities.
• Defining the skills gap and developing training courses to enhance the talent; designing and implementing targeted marketing strategies.
• Creating the financial incentives to attract investment into the sub-sector, such as supporting the investment in infrastructure including hospitals.

Opportunities for wellness tourism

The report states: “The COVID-19 pandemic increased the risk factors generally associated with poor mental health, notably, financial insecurity, unemployment, fear; while protective factors were negatively affected during this period including social connection, employment and educational engagement, access to physical exercise, daily routine, access to health services. The crisis effectively heightened the need for enhanced mental and physical wellbeing.”

Sourcing data from the Global Wellness Institute, the report continues: “While travelling for wellness purposes has already been on the rise in recent years, it is expected to grow significantly in the medium to long term, supported by travellers actively seeking ways to enhance their well-being. In 2017, wellness tourism was valued at US$639 billion and is projected to reach US$919 billion by 2022. It grew by 6.5% annually from 2015–2017, faster than tourism overall which grew by 4.3% annually during the same time period. International wellness tourists on average spent US$1,528 per trip, 53% more than the typical international tourist.”

The report recommends that destinations can attract additional investment and travellers by positioning themselves as wellness destinations, by designing and implementing targeted marketing strategies.

It argues that creating, and investing in, authentic experiences and products that are unique to a particular destination, geographically, culturally, or in other aspects, will be key in attracting wellness travellers. Examples provided include Balinese healing in Indonesia, traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, qigong, meditation, and martial arts. In addition, the report suggests there are opportunities to invest in fitness/wellness clubs and high-end wellness resorts and experiences.

Two further recommendations in the report may be popular with many destinations, but potentially uncomfortable for others.

Diversity

The report states that diversity in the travel ecosystem, as it relates to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, culture, religion, as well as physical and mental ability, is fundamental to the success of businesses, the meaningful impact on communities, and the improved experience of travellers.

It suggests there are investment opportunities for destinations and businesses alike, for products and services that would appeal to different groups of society including women, LGBTQI community, travellers with disability, among many others.

The report says: “LGBTQI tourism not only enhances the visibility and role of LGBTQI people but it also benefits destinations by associating their brand image with acceptance, diversity, and inclusivity. LGBTQI travellers have become recognised as a segment that travels more frequently and demonstrates higher-than-average patterns of spending. This presents a range of opportunities for destinations and investors such as investing into events infrastructure, safety, and authentic experiences, such as LGBTQI-friendly hiking tours, surf classes, yoga workshops, etc. Understanding and adapting the tourism offer to the preferences and needs of the diverse LGBTQI travellers is key to success. Destinations can attract additional investment and travellers through promotion activities and implementation of targeted marketing campaigns.”

Accessibility

The report identifies another important segment, linked to accessibility. In the United States, 26%, or one in four adults have some type of disability, which includes mobility, cognition, hearing or vision loss, among others.

To attract a higher share of this segment, it recommends that destinations and governments need to invest in products and services targeted to travellers with disabilities along the entire end-to-end travel journey. 46% of older persons (those aged 60 years and over) have a disability and a tendency to travel in a less busy offseason. Destinations can work towards overcoming seasonality by attracting this travel segment.