HEALTH, WELLNESS AND MEDICAL TOURISM – A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH

  • Joana A. Quintela University of Huelva
  • Carlos Costa
  • Anabela Correia

Keywords:

Health and Wellness, Tourism, Literature Review, Conceptual Definition

Abstract

Nowadays, health, wellness and medical tourism are recognized as one of the most developed and growing sector of today’s thriving tourism industry that has increased its activity worldwide, due to a lot of social and economic circumstancies that leads people to achieve and pursue a better quality of life. However, these kind of tourism face a multitude of challenges and one of that challenges is the discrepance on its different conceptual approaches and definitions. A literature review on this topic with a descriptive, comparative and exploratory nature was conducted, building a theoretical framework on this field of study. Units of meaning for the definition of the concept categories were elected, which allowed to reflect and sintetize the different approaches to the topic. This analysis brought other perspectives of identification and description of distinct themes, including a few issues about health, wellness, medical tourism, wellbeing and quality of life.

Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to summarize and clarify this complex and sweeping concept that assumes in a prominent role in the global context of tourism and results in a concise overview of the literature produced on the subject towards a small contribution to a better understanding of the concept.

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Author Biographies

Joana A. Quintela, University of Huelva

GOVCOPP – Research Unit in Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies
DEGEIT – Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism
University of Aveiro

Carlos Costa

GOVCOPP – Research Unit in Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies
DEGEIT – Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism
University of Aveiro

Anabela Correia

Business School | Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal
GOVCOPP – Research Unit in Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies
DEGEIT – Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism
University of Aveiro

References

Published
2016-06-28
How to Cite
Quintela, J. A., Costa, C., & Correia, A. (2016). HEALTH, WELLNESS AND MEDICAL TOURISM – A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH. ENLIGHTENING TOURISM. A PATHMAKING JOURNAL, 6(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.33776/et.v6i1.2814