There has been exponential growth in wellness tourism industry and the scale at which it is growing can be judged from the fact that in 2012 the industry generated revenue of $438 billion. Wellness tourism industry is also impacting economy as well as job opportunities in various countries. In the same year, the industry created around 11 million direct jobs for people and its economic impact was about $1.3 trillion on world economy.
Facts from GWTE 2013 Report
As per the Global Wellness Tourism Economy report of 2013 released by Global Wellness Institute, all around the world there has been considerable increase in niche tourism as an integral part of global tourism and travel sector. It is also mentioned in the report that wellness tourism has several direct effects consisting of tourist expenditures and trips as well as indirect effects on the global economy.
Similarities between Different Types of Tourism
It is also noted that there are several similarities between wellness tourism and other types of tourism segments. Additionally these tourism segments have common travel interests and motivations. As for example, a wellness traveler may also be interested in pursuing eco-tourism, adventure or culinary tourism as a secondary interest during a single tour.
Position of Various Countries
In recent studies, it has been found that Europe is ahead of other parts of the world in terms of domestic as well as international trips with figures of 203 million domestic and 163 million international trips, USA comes second after Europe. If we check tourist spending, North America is ahead of other countries with a total spending of $181 billion while people in Europe spent $158 billion. For Asia Pacific region, this figure is at $69 billion followed by Latin America with $22 billion. North Africa and Middle East together generated revenue of $5 billion while spending in Sub-Saharan area was at $2 billion only.In the GWTE report it is also mentioned that in a list of twenty best countries for international as well as domestic wellness tourism, US comes first with $167 billion in expenditures with Germany coming second with $42 billion and Japan in third position with expenditure of $28 billion.
