Special Issue "Sustainable Health Tourism"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Health and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Mercedes Rodríguez-Fernández
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economics and Business Administration, Campus El Ejido s/n 29071, University of Málaga, 29016 Málaga, Spain
Interests: Social responsibility; Financial performance; Sport; Health and Tourism; Listed companies; Corporate governance; Environmental and controversies issues
Prof. Dr. Yvon Bryan
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Anesthesiology, Dartmouth-Hitchhcock, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH 03756-0001, USA
Interests: Management of difficult cases; Safety in the operating room; Ergonomics of medicine; Social and sustainable medicine
Dr. Eva M. Sánchez-Teba
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economics and Business Administration, Campus El Ejido s/n 29071, University of Málaga, 29016 Málaga, Spain
Interests: Innovation; Tourism; Smart cities; Corporate governance; Environmental and controversies issues

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable Health Tourism, a current phenomenon, can be broadly defined as tourism that contributes to physical and mental health through medical and wellness activities that increase the ability of individuals to meet those needs.

Although health tourism has grown significantly in recent years, it is understudied. Effectively exploiting this niche market and grasp its growth potential in the development of sustainable tourism further research is warranted.

Wellness tourism and Medical tourism comprise different categories within health tourism. Whereas Wellness Tourism aims to improve and balance the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of individuals through activities that improve lifestyle—such as physical activity, relaxation, personal care, and healthy eating habits—Medical Tourism refers to a tourism activity that involves the use of medical resources and services for the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, cure, and subsequent rehabilitation from illness.

Presently, society spends an increasing amount time on leisure activities, and resources are employed in actions that promote and encourage healthy lifestyles. These factors contribute to the growth of health tourism; the strained and overloaded condition of medical care in a large number of developed countries, where aging and chronic illnesses take an ever-larger percentage of total health expenditures, sets the stage for medical tourism.

In addition, life in cities poses a challenge to public health which, together with chronic diseases, leads to a growing demand for health-related travel, natural alternatives, and escapism. Technology and innovation also facilitate health-related travel, such as minimally invasive technology (e.g., laparoscopy), or novelties in aesthetic treatments.

Despite the expansion of health tourism, estimating its growth and market size is presently difficult due to limited, fragmented, and often unreliable data.

Sustainability and social responsibility have become key criteria in health tourism. Destinations must consider the impact of health tourism on the quality of life of local residents, as the wellbeing of local residents should be considered as important as the health of tourists.

Amongst the strengths of health tourism, in its capability to match demand and offer during the year, and when compared to other tourism classifications heavily dependent and associated with specific times of the year, is combating the strong seasonality tendency of the tourist industry. The dispersal and relocation of tourism centers throughout urban and rural areas promotes regional development otherwise lacking under general conditions.  

The Special Issue welcomes papers focused on the latest knowledge in this area of research. The papers must show originality and give a significant contribution to the scope of the Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Mercedes Rodríguez-Fernández
Prof. Dr. Yvon Bryan
Dr. Eva M. Sánchez-Teba
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • medical
  • health
  • sustainability
  • tourism
  • wellbeing
  • wellness
  • social responsibility
  • rural development
  • urban development

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Broken but Well: Healing Dimensions of Cultural Tourism Experiences
Sustainability 2021, 13(2), 966; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020966 - 19 Jan 2021
Viewed by 770
Abstract
Wellbeing has been researched in relation to social, wellness, rural, backpacker, senior, wildlife, transformational or transformative tourism or studies exist specifically focusing on wellbeing tourism. Surprisingly enough, there is a void of research focus on wellbeing in cultural tourism, although culture has been [...] Read more.
Wellbeing has been researched in relation to social, wellness, rural, backpacker, senior, wildlife, transformational or transformative tourism or studies exist specifically focusing on wellbeing tourism. Surprisingly enough, there is a void of research focus on wellbeing in cultural tourism, although culture has been considered as having a substantial impact on wellbeing. The research uses the case study of the Museum of Broken Relationships (MBR) in Zagreb, Croatia, under the assumption that MBR experiences have a relevant influence on tourists’ subjective wellbeing. Subjective wellbeing was measured after the visitation using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) and a majority of the respondents experienced moderate to high wellbeing. Furthermore, the research aimed to investigate whether or not there is any difference between cultural and non-cultural tourists’ subjective wellbeing noted after the visitation to the Museum. The results showed that there was no substantial difference between cultural and non-cultural tourists’ subjective wellbeing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Health Tourism)
Article
Medical Tourism Markets: Models of Sustainability. The Case of Spain and The Costa del Sol (Malaga)
Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 8818; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218818 - 23 Oct 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 888
Abstract
The interest and relevance of medical tourism has increased significantly over the last few decades, and it has become a very lucrative source of income and profit for many firms. This paper analyses the sustainability of the medical tourism model in Spain in [...] Read more.
The interest and relevance of medical tourism has increased significantly over the last few decades, and it has become a very lucrative source of income and profit for many firms. This paper analyses the sustainability of the medical tourism model in Spain in general, and in The Costa del Sol (Spain) in particular, in order to investigate the potential challenges that the domestic industry will face in the future. For this purpose, we first analysed the process of the globalization of health services and the main characteristics of the Spanish medical tourism industry (in terms of tourism and health services). Second, we examined the data availability on medical tourism for the cases of Spain, Andalusia and The Costa del Sol, and identified who travels, why, and for what reasons. The results show that Spain and The Costa del Sol offer high-quality medical and tourism facilities and services with very competitive prices, and with the high commitment and support of public local authorities, tourism and health providers, and universities. However, the lack of a real leadership, well-defined strategy, financial support, and specific training programs are considered to be crucial challenges for the near future. In addition to this, the novel coronavirus, the economic crisis, Brexit and the situation of British expats living in Spain and The Costa del sol are also discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Health Tourism)
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Article
Perceived Risks, Travel Constraints, and Destination Perception: A Study on Sub-Saharan African Medical Travellers
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2807; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072807 - 02 Apr 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 889
Abstract
In medical travel, previous studies have investigated the factors that influence medical travellers to receive treatment outside the country. However, most of these studies are limited to travel motivations and perceptions of medical services at destinations. The main objective of this study was [...] Read more.
In medical travel, previous studies have investigated the factors that influence medical travellers to receive treatment outside the country. However, most of these studies are limited to travel motivations and perceptions of medical services at destinations. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between medical travellers’ perceived risks, travel constraints, and destination image based on medical and non-medical attributes. This is a quantitative study whereby the data was collected from 306 sub-Saharan African medical travellers, who visited India for the treatment. The study found that physical-health risk has a significant negative influence on destination image based on medical attributes. The service quality risk has a negative effect on destination image based on both medical and non-medical attributes, and destination risk has a negative effect on destination image based on medical attributes. The study also found that travel constraints have a negative influence on both medical and non-medical destination image. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Health Tourism)
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