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Health and Spa Tourism: Focusing on Body Fitness
Introduction
The health and spa tourism focuses on addressing the issue of body fitness and the means of keeping oneself health. This tourism industry is growing at an alarming rate in the world today. This is to keep the pace with the growing new age and revamp the traditional health measures. With the ever increasing work related stress, people have realized the need to take care of their bodies and are looking for measures of keeping their bodies fit (Hall 1999, p.56). This demand is adequately met by the health and spa tourism. This is the key drive in the growth of the spa and tourism industry. People have found this kind of tourism as better substitute for other leisure activities because of the benefits it gives their life. It is a good relief from work related stress. People need to be detached from daily work stress so that they can have some rest and regain their work capacity to improve productivity. They therefore need to go for rehabilitation holiday. The spa and health tourism meets all these needs.
This essay seeks to vet the target market of the health and tourism and why they choose to engage in this kind of sector. It also evaluates the challenges that this sector is likely to face in the next decade.
Health and Spa Tourism Target Market
The target market of health and spa tourism is skewed towards the product that the industry offers like restaurants and medical centers. People gain interest in these products depending on their needs and the extent to which the product meets them. The other facilities offered by the industry include art clubs, mineral water pools and the pool bar among others. The first group of the health and spa industry is the people working in high and stressing positions in organizations. This is the category of people who face daily work stress because all challenges facing the organizations are resting on their shoulders (Yeoman 2008, p.48). They work for long hours and get little time to rest. The spa and health industry targets to satisfy these people during their leave time. There are a lot of facilities that will enable them rest and regain their capacity and strength.
The other target group is employees of big businesses and corporation. This group enjoys the spa facilities because their employers take them to spa and pay for them to use the spa facilities. This is giving them a brake for relaxation and rest after heavy and hectic work. This is meant also to energize them and relief them of work stress. The health and spa treatment also helps these people to keep their bodies strong and health so that they can serve their employers for a longer time and be more productive. (Jons 1996, p.34)
Businessmen who travel most of the time to different parts of the world or locally are also part of the target market. These people spend most of their time travelling and to keep their bodies fit and health, they need special treatment which health and spa tourism is dedicated to offer them. This tourism treatment will give them rest and make them recover from worn out and fatigue. The young professionals who at their early age are having a lot of stress and are looking preventive services are also targeted. This group is looking for preventive services that will prevent their body from being impaired by stress which might otherwise affect their lifestyle and their productivity in life. There is dire need for these professionals to keep their body fit at their early stage in life so that they can remain productive for a long time. People who need spa services and facilities like mineral water pool, art pool et cetera and would comfortably pay for them are targeted. This represents every individual who would like to use and pay the spa services for relaxation. (Melanie 2008. P.32). These are people who just feel that they need to keep their bodies fit with by visiting health and spa facilities. They are the people capable of meeting the spa charges for use of its facilities.
The young families with children aged below 15 years are also targeted. There are facilities that re appropriate for this category of people like the kindergarten and restaurants. Also entertainment facilities are provided. There are facilities for kids entertainment. They can enjoy other facilities like medical center pool. Families with children with of age above 15 who would use facilities like bar pool; medical pool and some organized entertainments are part of the target market. They can al so use other facilities like hotels and art club. This is because their age allows them to have access to these products. The health and spa tourism makes these products available so that they can attract couples with children above age 15 (Johnson 1997, p. 56). They can take their children during holidays to spa facilities for relaxation after a long period of study in school.
Products like beauty shops are fit for couples who do not have children and are also part of the target market. They also enjoy other products like pool bar; restaurant and art club like any other group. They observe a moment of relaxation and rest as they prepare to have children. They are also relieved of work stress. They keep their body fit through dual massage and other kinds of treatment (Melanie 2008, p.37). This is the group that visits the spa most frequently and they boost the health tourism industry. There are those families wishing to escape the city polluted air and congestion. These people find rest in the health and spa industry. They go to a place with fresh air and calmness, and holiday treatment. The other target group is for those people who do not live near the spa products but would like to enjoy them. They have a chance to get entertainment and healthy treatment that do not exist where they stay. They can reap the full benefits of this special tourism sector.
According to Williams (2004) the young people in the local areas who do not have access to health entertainment look for satisfaction from spa center. The industry targets this group because it has the biggest number of people who need the products most. It is clear that the health and spa industry tries to accommodate all kinds of people and makes quality products available to them.
The choice of the target market of health and spa industry may not be achieved because of a number of factors:
Firstly, the social status of people affects the choice of the target market of the people. Social stators indicate what people consider as important in their social life. There are those who do not value tourism at all. This is the group that will never use the products of health and spa tourism. To them it is a waste of time and resources to go and be massaged, entertained and other beliefs. Social stators can also be factors outside a person that drives him. What the person values externally.
Hall (2000) argued that the size of the family also affects the market of health and spa tourism industry. When the family is small, it becomes easier for them to visit the spa centers. This is because it may become very expensive for the family to go out together and have fun in the spa centers. The economic stators of the people are another hindrance. The poor families may have the will to visit the spa centers but they do not have the means. Their income level may only cater for basic needs of the family and have nothing left for entertainment.
The married people will visit the spa centers when they do not have children. When the children come, they concentrate on bringing up the children and do not have time for entertainment. Their social needs also changes.Married couples who do not have children are visits the spa centers most frequently. This is because their social needs are at the climax. They seek to please each other. Due to the medicinal springs provided by the health and spa tourism industry, the sick will tend to visit the spa centers than those not sick.
Why People Choose Health and Spa Tourism Industry
People prefer to engage themselves in the health and spa tourism industry because of the products that the industry offers. To most people especially those who live far from the spa centers do not have any other place where they can go and have treatment they can get at spa centers. They therefore come to spa centers to look for healthy entertainment and other kinds or products. People will need relaxation after working for long hours. Spa centers offer a comfortable place for one to relax and exercise to regain strength after working for a long time. Most of the people like the businessmen who travel for long distances have their destination at the spa center where they relax and rest before they go to work again (Melanie 2008, p.42).
After long working hours in a busy working environment and having a backlog of things to do, people need to rest in order to relieve stress. They choose the spa centers because it offers the best facilities where someone can rest in a calm environment. This way they regain strength get ready to work again having relieved the stress. The sick and those who want to prevent themselves from any kind of sickness visit the spa centers most frequently. This is because they can get the spas healing power from the mineral water springs. They find the spa center the best because there is all they need to meet their needs. They visit for healing power and the preventive measures. The spa centers also provide people with the weight loss facilities. This enables people to maintain a reasonable body weight. People with unregulated body weight have problems even with functioning of their body. They therefore need to reduce their weight i order to become effective and health (Richardson 1996, p.27). The health of ones body depends on ones weight. The heavy weight people are vulnerable to a lot of diseases. At spa centers, people are provided with measured and recommended devices for weight loss.
For purposes of body fitness and exercise, people trust and prefer spa centers (Murphy 1985, p.67). People are engaged in proper exercise that will keep their bodies fit. The exercises are done the right way with proper direction to ensure that they help the body. People also visit the spa centers in order to run away from the news theta are nor helpful. At spa, there is cool and silent environment that allows people to keep away from the news that are not beneficial to the person. The other reason why people choose the health and spa tourism is the quality of the products offered. Since people look for and pay for quality, they choose the industry because it offers the quality they look for. Therefore, people choose to visit the health and spa industry due to various reasons that are helpful to them.
Challenges that the Health and Spa Industry are likely to Face in the next Decade
Although the benefits of Health and Spa industry are many, there are also challenges that the industry face and is likely to face in the next decade. Firstly, according to Smith and Duffy (2003) the main challenge is to serve the customers to satisfy them and exercising due diligence. In this industry, customers expect to be served the way they want that is in most cases beyond what the industry requires. For instance, for massaging and other bodywork treatments the customer should be served in a way that will satisfy him fully. Sometimes meeting the customers satisfaction is challenging. Flexibility is another challenge. The customer may change the time they were supposed to come for the service. The industry servants and the industrys management must be flexible enough to accommodate the inconveniencing nature of the clients (Melanie 2008, p.46). Unless the industry goes the way of the customer, it will lose the customer which is hard to regain. The industry must therefore be able to adjust according to the needs of the customer and what they request.
The industrys presentation to the guests is also a challenge. The industrys staff representing the industry to the guests must be corporately and professionally dressed. The way they gloom and communicate to the customers must be very professional in order to attract more customers and retain those that exist. One may dress in a way that will displease the customer and that is what the customer will get the company is because the employees represents the company and they do every thing on behalf of the company (Richardson 1997, p.32). The customer believes that a well dressed company will also be able to dress them well in terms of the services it will offer them. For a badly gloomed company, the service they will offer will also be believed to be bad. To serve many customers in a queue especially for massaging is tasking. For instance performing massaging to many people is not a simple work. The therapists are supposed to have the stamina to perform the job. Most of the times the stamina is lacking and this translates to customers being dissatisfied. Ritchie & Adair (2004) argued that the industry has to look for therapists who are able to overcome these challenges otherwise the company will have a lot of problems of companies complaining being dissatisfied. Maintaining the customer is the main challenge in this case.
The spas treatment room must be equipped with all the equipment necessary (Dickman 1999 p.48). These equipment are very expensive and also the cost of maintain them is also high. Skilled professionals are also needed to perform the job. To hire these professionals may also be very expensive. It is therefore challenging to remain profitable through out while still incurring these huge costs. The customers may not be willing to bear this cost within the price charged. The business may end up being unprofitable. This is a challenge that needs to be addressed soon before many companies are locked out of the business. There is lack of diversity in the Health and Spa industry. The Spa owners should diversify and come up with a variety of services in order to increase the profitability. They should also work out a strategy that will reduce the operating costs. This way the industry will be more profitable and will be able to lower the huge cost of installing and maintaining the equipments. If the company manages to cover these costs, the company will be able to make a lot of profits and stay in business for a longer time.
According to Ross (1998), in the events of economic down turn, the tourism industry is also affected like any other sector. The spa owners are forced by situations to review their strategies even before they work out the one they already have. This is also a costly exercise and also delays the growth of the industry. During the economic crisis people do not have money and therefore they do not visit the spa centers. This makes this tourism sector to incur huge losses and also drag their growth. Also in the events of political unrest in a country, tourism industry is the most hit sector in the world. This is because the foreign tourists that might have interest in the spa services will fail to come alleging that there is no enough security (Poon 1993, p.45).
The Health and Spa tourism sector is also faced by shortage of competent, well qualified personnel to carry out the services. This shortage is due to the increasing growth of the industry without a match of trained personnel. This challenge is making them unable to serve well the growing industry.
The other challenge is lack of strong quality service control. This is making the services to be inconsistent and this may cause some customers to hate the product. According to Craig & French (1994), the spa owners must be able to come up with strategies that will ensure there is consistent quality service given to customers. This will help the industry get many customers and be able to maintain them by offering them quality service. What the customer value most is the quality that they pay for.
The other challenge is lack of initiative on the side of the employees. The employees do not take the initiative in the job (Ross 1998, p.46). This is because they are not motivated and they are not given the incentives. The spa owners should motivate their employees so that they can love their job and they can take it as their own responsibility to ensure quality service is given to the guests. The employers should appreciate the employees effort and encourage them to do better than they have done.
The other main challenge is loss of employees who go to look for other well paying jobs. Although it is hard to satisfy the employees, something should be done in the Health and Spa industry in order to maintain a team of qualified and experienced employees.
In the long run, the cost of hiring new employees is much higher than the cost of maintaining the experienced old employees.
The other main challenge is lack of awareness to the consumers about the products offered by the Health and Spa Tourism sector. The company needs to do a lot of publications in order to create awareness to the people about what they offer (Ross 1998, p.43). This will increase the number of people who will be consuming the product. People might never know the product unless they are told that the product is there. Advertisement is the most effective method of creating awareness about the products offered in the market. The industry should therefore work on the level of awareness of their product to ensure that they are known by as many people as possible.
With the growth in the Heath and Spa tourism, the existing infrastructure cannot contain the growth. The industry need to improve their infrastructure and build new ones in order to be able to accommodate the increasing number of customers (Richardson 1997, p.34).
The other challenge is lack of product development. The product offered by the industry is not recording any growth. The product should be developed and new products should be come up with so that more and more customers may be attracted to the industry (Melanie 2008, p.47). Product innovation and creativity is needed. The new product to be come up with must be unique in the market so that it can win a big market share. In some countries the Health and Spa tourism is facing financial shortage and that explains why they have not been able to market their products. The governments should support this industry with finances for them to be able to expand and market the product.
In conclusion, the Health and Spa Tourism is growing at a very high rate in the world today. The governments should invest heavily in this industry as a way of creating employment opportunities to the citizen. The Spa owners should improve the quality of services they offer and also and also address the other challenges pacing the industry.
Reference
Craig, S. & French, (1994) Learning to Live with Tourism. Pitman, Melbourne.
Dickman, S. (1999) Tourism an Introductory Text, 3 rd Ed. Melbourne, Oxford University Press.
Hall, C. (2000) Tourism in South and Southeast Asia: issues and cases. Oxford. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Hall, C. (1999) Introduction to Tourism in Australia 2 nd Ed, Melbourne. Longman.
Johnson, D. (1997). Introduction to Travel and, Tourism. Australia. McGraw Hill.
Jons, P. (1996), Introduction to Hospitality Operations, London: Cass.
Melanie, K. (2008). Health and wellness tourism. Hungary. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Murphy, P. (1985). Tourism: a community approach. New York. Methuen.
Poon, A. (1993). Tourism, Technology and Competitive Strategies. Wallingford. CAB International.
Richardson, J. (1996). A history of Australian travel and Tourism. Melbourne. Hospitality Press.
Ritchie, B. & Adair, D. (2004), Sport tourism: interrelationships, impacts and issues, Clevedon. Channel View.
Ross, G. (1998). The psychology of tourists. 2nd.Ed. Melbourne. Hospitality Press.
Smith, M. & Duffy, R. 2003. The Ethics of Tourism Development London. Routledge.
Williams, S. (2004).Tourism: critical concepts in the social sciences. New York. Taylor & Francis.
Yeoman, I. (2008). Tomorrows Tourist: Scenarios and Trends. Oxford. Elsevier.
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