Health and Well-being in
Tourism Destination
"WelDest"
2012 - 2014
The aim of WelDest is to create a development framework to be used by
- public bodies
- destination management organizations
- private companies
when developing holistic health and well- being destinations
The objectives are:
1. To outline, via research, the Health & Well-Being service supply, resources, staff competencies and elements at a destination appreciated by locals and tourists.
2. To identify or strengthen the potential for business opportunities in tourism and to foster innovation around Health & Well-Being based services and destination development.
3. To contribute to lifelong learning by the achieving the following outcomes:
a) An electronic handbook “Keys to developing a holistic health & well-being tourism destination”, including a self-assessment and development tool for destinations and course design, to be used at tertiary level and continuing education for the industry.
b) A blog providing industry, academia and citizens with new opportunities to share their knowledge on health & well-being topics.
By Susanna Saari
Turku University of Applied Sciences
WelDest combines the expertise of:
- 6 Higher Education Institutes
- 12 industry and
- 18 associate partners
from Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary and the UK.
These countries represent different stages of development in health and well-being tourism.
Thank you for your interest!
Please contact susanna.saari (at) turkuamk.fi for further information
WelDest addresses many needs, challenges and EU communications, e.g.
- Tourism communication (2010, 352) on sustainable, high-quality tourism and diversification of destinations
- Changing demographics and increasing concern for health creating demand for quality health and well-being services
- Lack of European wide understanding of what constitutes a health promoting destination and educational material on the subject