Web-promotion of Wellness
Tourism in Serbia
Lukrecija Djeri, PhD
Survey by Jelena Farkić, Msc
What is wellness?
• Anything that makes one feel good or that is
“healthy”
• A state of complete physical,mental and social wellbeing (World Health Organization)
• A complex concept, containing “elements of
lifestyle; physical, mental, and spiritual well-being;
and one’s relationship with oneself, others, and
environment (Smith and Puczko, 2009)
2
The wellness paradigm
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Wellness tourism
• Wellness-minded consumers integrate healthy habits
and activities into their lifestyles and their travel
4
Wellness tourism
• Wellness tourism is growing 50% faster than the
overall tourism industry
• Represents 6% of all domestic and international
trips
• Wellness tourists are high-yield tourists who bring
greater economic impacts (spend 130% more than
regular tourists)
• May improve the well-being of general population
5
Wellness tourism by region
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Wellness tourism by region
• The top 5 countries (US, Germany, Japan, France
and Austria) account for over half of the market
(63% of expenditures)
• Countries that receive the most inbound
international tourist arrivals – US, France, Austria,
Germany and Switzerland
• Countries that have the most domestic wellness
tourism trips: US, Germany, Japan, China, France
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The future of Wellness Tourism
• Projected to grow by 9.1%
annually through 2017
2013
• Over half of the projected
growth will take place in
Asia, Latin America and
the Middle East
2017
• In Europe top countries for
growth
–
Germany,
Switzerland,
Poland,
Russia,
Turkey,
Spain,
Czech, Hungary
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The goal of the research
Conducted by Farkić & Romanov (2014)
• Analyze the web sites (and wellness offer) of the hospitals, health
institutes, wellness centers, hotels and resorts in Serbian spas
• Analyze the ways spas communicate with their existing and
prospective clients via the internet
• Set up the theoretical grounds for wellness service providers to
innovate, reinvent and promote their service packages and
develop and/or improve their communicative capacities with
prospective consumers
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The current situation in Serbia
Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Serbia, 2013
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Spa resources in Serbia
• A country rich in thermal and mineral waters (over
1000), mud and air
• Over 40 spas
• Royal Serbian Spas
• Most of the spas are malfunctioning due to the
isolated development and the false service structure
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The current situation in Hungary
• Approximately 450 public baths in Hungary
• 50 public baths are qualified as spas
• Budapest has the richest supply of thermal water
among the capitals of the world
• Bath operators modernizing their facilities and
expanding the services offered
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How much are the Serbian wellness
facilities promoted online?
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Method
• Web site analysis of the
wellness centers in the
spas featured on the
official web site of the
National
Tourism
Organization of Serbia
• Survey construction, 2
series of questions –
sent to 40 emails in 16
Serbian spas
• Response rate 20%
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Results
* Republic Health Insurance Fund; ** Special Hospital for Rehabilitation; ***Patients with a referral
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10
10
10
9
9
8
7
6
6
5
4
Wellness services
4
3
3
3
2
1
0
0
"Banja
Kanjiža“
"Rusanda“
Hotel
"Royal
Drina"
"Niška
banja“
"Prolom
Banja“
"Ribarska
Banja“
"Banjica“
"Dr
Borivoje
Gnjatić“
Sauna 62.5%; jacuzzi 50%, fitness programs and salt room 25% cycling, aquafitness,
aromatherapy, cosmetics, pearl baths, solarium, tapidarium: less than 25%
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The ways of promotion of wellnes services
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• All the observed centers are reachable across the
internet by a click on their web site address but only
50% of them do not have their banners on other web
sites.
• 50% do not have an interactive web sites in terms of
the online reservations, choosing the wellness offer,
promotional packages or even the possibility for
dynamic packaging.
• The most frequent consumers are couples, followed
by the youth and seniors equally.
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Cooling Cubes: IPA Cross-border
Co-operation Programme
• The aim is to elaborate an integrated spa
development strategy based on the cross-border
cooperation between Serbia and Hungary
• Budapest – Belgrade axis - a large number of spas
with different characteristics and possibilities
• Thirty of the spas attract approximately 2,5 million
visitors per year.
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Conclusion
•
This preliminary study was undertaken in order to help the local
spas to make their web sites more effective with a view to retaining
existing and attracting new clients
•
It is to be hoped that this pilot research will help to encourage spa
managers to pay better attention to the personalized e-marketing.
•
Obtaining precise customer profiles might help them to elaborate
more efficient strategies to approach the prospective clients.
•
While the spa industry’s virtual presence will continue to grow,
room has to be made for wellness tourism, as it is obvious that this
is an era of integrated spa, fitness, health, spiritual, wellness and
beauty facilities, which are all communicated via the Internet.
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Thank you for your attention
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