Tourist Preferences for Revitalizing Wellness Products and Reversing Depopulation in Rural Destinations

Abstract

Wellness tourism is a growing segment that destinations can rely on to increase tourism flows and revive underdeveloped rural areas. This study elicits tourists’ preferences for wellness tourism products and the redevelopment of a wellness destination in a depopulated rural area. The research included 595 participants in Central Greece using on-site, face-to-face surveys. The survey data were analyzed using a two-step process. First, conjoint analysis was applied to determine the combination of wellness tourism product attributes that maximize visitors’ utility. In the second step, we elicited visitors’ willingness to pay (WTP) for improvements in tourism product attributes using the contingent valuation method. The findings indicate that the combination of attributes that maximizes the preference structure of respondents includes time of visit from September to October, duration of visit from 1 to 7 days, wellness tourism as the primary purpose of the visit, and wellness activities that contain both physical activities and training as well as spiritual and emotional enhancement. Using binary logistic regression, the analysis indicates that respondents are willing to pay EUR 47.33 per visit on average further to develop wellness tourism products in the study area. Empirical results confirmed that sustainability issues, quality, and entrepreneurship factors positively impact visitors’ WTP for revitalizing wellness products. In contrast, a longer duration of stay in the area and respondents’ age negatively impact their WTP. These findings suggest that structuring a customer-driven tourism product will enhance the rural destination’s efforts to attract high-yield visitors and advance the rural economy. Furthermore, practical implications reveal that Destination Management Organizations will benefit from research results to foster targeted management plans.