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Senior Tourism Leaders Roundtable

At the World Travel Market hosted by the Global Wellness Institute  

November 2, 2015

This forum brought together senior figures of tourism who are pro-actively exploring or actively incorporating a wellness culture into both their strategies and forward planning discussions. The diverse benefits of wellness tourism were debated and the growing reality of wellness as an essential and even (becoming) compulsory element to a tourism and cultural strategy. The challenges, the opportunities, and the potential of embracing this high growth tourism sector was explored and discussed.
 

Key takeaways:

  • Education in both the public and private sector must not be underestimated in its need and most importantly its essential role in enabling strategic progress both economically and socially.
  • The aggregation of data, case studies and monitored impact must be gathered and disseminated to better effect for regional and global advantage.
  • Investors are interested because of high margins and multi demographics wishing to approach everything with wellness at the forefront of their decision making process.
  • Challenges remain where more ‘traditional’ tourist attractions still trump the wellness opportunity – this mirrors back to the importance of education and driving data collection and evidential case studies.

To learn more, read the complete Roundtable Report highlighting key takeaways from the event.

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS:

Yazmin Azman, Head of Strategy and Communications, Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council, Malaysia
Katia Carvalho, Regional Director of Tourism, Madeira, Spain
Anni Hood, Founder and CEO Wellness Business Consultancy
Mia Kyricos, Founder and CEO, Kyricos and Associates, United States
Dr. Eleni Michopoulou, Assistant Professor – Tourism and Wellness, Derby University, United Kingdom
HE Michael Nazzal, Senator for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and President of Jordan Federation of Tourism Associations
Stella Photi, Founder and Director – Wellbeing Escapes, United Kingdom
Liisa Renfors, Product Specialist, Visit Finland, Finland
Richard Sermon, MBE