Wellness in the Spa Industry: An Investigation of Hot Spring Tourism in Australia

The evolution of wellness as a tourism segment has progressively grown as a field of academic and practical interest. This trend is a response to the growing awareness of the concept of wellbeing which is widely understood as a state of being or feeling which has an emphasis on making one’s life physically and emotionally better. This can include happiness, financial stability, health and spirituality. Spas or wellness hotels are an important element of wellness tourism and are often associated with nature-based activities. These activities are centred around some form of water treatments. Hence hot springs are a growing segment of the wellness tourism industry. Hot springs have long been known for their therapeutic benefits; however, there has been little academic investigation of the industry, its wellness impacts or its significance as a tourism phenomenon. The chapter will explore Australian tourism and wellness tourism, the importance of Australian hot springs in regional destinations and the importance of developing indicators specific to the hot spring tourism industry. This will be achieved through an investigation of the emergence of the tourism and hot spring industry in Australia and the review of tourism indicators to help develop a set of indicators as a tool to measure the impacts of hot springs.