Predictors of Tourists' Wellbeing Holiday Intentions in Finland

Abstract

Many studies on the motivations and profiles of health and wellbeing tourists have focused on various sub-sectors of health, wellness and wellbeing tourism, but more general research on wellbeing tourists has been quite rare. This study aims to investigate tourists' motivations as predictors of their interest in wellbeing tourism holidays as opposed to tourists who are not interested in wellbeing holidays. Data were collected at the Nordic Travel Fair in January 2009. In total 406 acceptable responses were used. To evaluate the predictive influence of push and pull factors, the data were analysed using logistic regression analysis with backward stepwise method. The results show that previous experience of wellbeing holidays, number of annual holiday trips, together with pull factors ‘water park and/or spa’, ‘natural sights’ and ‘easy access at the destination’, and push factors ‘refreshing myself’, ‘experiencing fashionable/trendy places’ and ‘aesthetic experiences’ significantly increase the likelihood of tourists being interested in taking wellbeing holidays.