Abstract

Geothermal springs constitute a major tourism resource, providing spectacular settings, recreation facilities, a recognised value in treatments beneficial for health and wellness, a sense of heritage and adventure, and links with the natural environment. Health and wellness tourism accounts for a significant proportion of the world’s tourism consumption, with components ranging from hot spring bathing for leisure and recreation, through mineral water use in health treatments under the supervision of highly specialised medical professionals, to water treatments in the wellness and beauty therapy sector and the use of mineral water for drinking purposes. This makes it an economically and socially important area of tourism demanding in-depth analysis. This book explores health and wellness tourism from a range of perspectives including usage, heritage, management, technology, environmental and cultural features, and marketing.

Patricia Erfurt-Cooper lectures in tourism resource management at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan. Her research interests include geothermal resources for human use and geotourism in volcanic and geothermal environments with a focus on risk management.

Malcolm Cooper is Vice President (Research) at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan and lectures in tourism law and tourism development and planning. His research interests include tourism development and planning, sustainable development and management of environmental resources.

Overall, the book’s strengths lie in the authors’ global coverage of spas and hot springs, their history, geography and geology. There is evidence of detailed research and an impressive range of resources are presented.

Hot springs are a global phenomenon but until now there has been no account of the global nature of hot spring tourism. This book fulfils the need for a comprehensive account of the significance and nature of hot spring tourism and how hot springs impact on the global spa and wellness industry.

In a book vividly recapitulating the evolving episodes in an emerging travel market, authors render their pilot endeavor on many issues of health tourism that trace the formation of wellness concept and its usage. It also provides instructive guideposts to tour recent developments in the spa business.