Wellness tourism and spa sectors urged to unite

Former World Travel and Tourism Council President Jean-Claude Baumgarten has urged the wellness tourism and spa sectors to unite in order to attract greater levels of governmental support.

Speaking at the first Wellness Tourism Congress in New Delhi, Baumgarten explained to delegates how the tourism industry originally co-ordinated efforts to promote the profile of the sector to governments by proving it represented 10% of GDP and 11% of employment.

Urging the wellness tourism and spa sectors to unite and employ the same tactics, Baumgarten explained "the sectors need to decide the key messages they want to convey keep it simple and focus on top line numbers things like GDP. Then use the power of the combined spa and wellness tourism communities to spread the word. Everyone in the industry must be on-message in quoting these numbers at every opportunity, at every press briefing, meeting and in every interview."

Baumgarten added that politicians are very influenced by research which shows the value of a market against other sectors, urging wellness tourism to compare itself with well known sectors such as manufacturing, automobile and pharmaceuticals.

Baumgarten stated "be opportunistic as well. The travel sector saw a 27% drop in spend after 9/11 and we found at this point it was effective to remind governments how much they were missing it."

Baungarten's comments came as research carried out by SRI International for the Wellness Tourism Congress established that the economic impact of global wellness tourism is US$3.1 trillion per annum.

The inaugural Wellness Tourism Congress was held at the beginning of October running alongside the annual Global Spa and Wellness Summit in New Delhi, India.

For more information go to www.globalspaandwellnesssummit.org/

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