Wellness and spa tourism: finding space for Indian Himalayan spa resorts

Abstract

ABSTRACT India has been considered as one of the epicentres of Wellness and Spa tourism due to the presence of traditional healing therapies such as Ayurveda and Yoga. The primary purpose of this study is to identify the gap, if any, in terms of customer expectation and perception in Himalayan spa resorts, and it will be helpful for the spa practitioners to overall improve the spa services and enhance the customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the present study has also tried to identify the various wellness tourism factors which affect the overall guest satisfaction and future intentions. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis have been used to identify the various spa services factors and confirm the factors respectively. Factors which have been identified are Spa Ambience, Professionalism and Wellness Services. Structural Equation Modelling has been used to test the hypotheses. The study found that there is a positive relationship between Spa Ambience, Professionalism and Wellness Services. The major implication of the study is all these factors would help in developing the overall guest satisfaction as well as the repeat business of the Himalayan spa resorts, The study is quantitative and explains its findings in details.