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Catering to the healthy-living vacationer

Department of Tourism Management, College of Business, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive # 5176, Hattiesburg, MS 39406–5176, USA Tel: (601) 266 6660; Fax: (601) 266 6707 Zaher.Hallab{at}usm.edu

An essential function that is recommended for destinations and tourism and hospitality organizations to undertake is to learn about developments in the external environment that may have a substantial impact on the competitiveness of their business. The healthy-living lifestyle has been gaining momentum in the USA and in various parts of the world; more than ever, programs, products, and regulations are being developed and implemented to cater to members of the mentioned lifestyle and to support the overall well being of societies. In the field of travel and tourism, health has been approached from the angle of tourism experiences’ effects on an individual's well being. There has been no attempt to explore the characteristics of a healthy-living market segment and its travel motivational characteristics. This article presents the findings of a research project that aimed at unveiling the travel motivational characteristics of the healthy-living market segment along with its socio-demographic characteristics. In today's competitive environment, it has become a must to learn about a specific segment's characteristics. Destinations as well as tourism/hospitality organizations cannot afford to waste their resources on decisions taken based on personal opinions and not hard intelligence on specific markets of interest. Using the findings as guidelines, recommendations are presented on possible public and private sectors’ roles in supporting the development and marketing of hospitality and tourism products and services positioned to cater to vacationers who have a healthy-living oriented lifestyle.

Key Words: healthy-living • segmentation • travel motives • lifestyle • tourist behavior • push factors • pull factors

Journal of Vacation Marketing, Vol. 12, No. 1, 71-91 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1356766706059043


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