Emi Moriuchi, Jerome Agrusa, Joseph Lema
Abstract
Driven by changing consumer behavior trends, a transitioning economy, unique cultural and historical traditions, in conjunction with a wide-ranging exposure to health, wellbeing, and holistic approaches to human needs, Thailand is well suited to accelerate its involvement in this niche market. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the traveler’s motivations and revisit intentions to Thailand along with seeking further understanding of emerging patterns within health and wellness travel and how Thai massage complements the tourism system. Through structural equation modelling, we searched the relationships between travel cost motivations and perceived autonomy satisfaction, competence satisfaction, and relatedness satisfaction dimensions.
Keywords: Thai massage, health tourism,welness tourism
Cite: Moriuchi, E., Agrusa, J., & Lema, J. (2024). Strategies for health and wellness tourism development: Thai massage. International Journal of Tourism Research, 26(1), e2622.