Wellness everything: Friend or Foe? | ITB Experts Forum Wellness 2016

Wellness is now everywhere. It is often labelled as a megatrend of today. Considering the history of humankind one may find that wellness has been all around. In different forms, of course. Culture, traditions and natural resources have been defining how communities thought of wellness and a concept.

Is wellness really a trend? Is it not only fashion? Making a ‘wellness’ version of almost anything and everything does make a difference? How can eggs be wellness eggs?
We need to consider what is only a label and what I behind the label. Is not there a tendency of contemporary wellness to commercialize the concept of wellbeing? Where does wellness-washing starts?

The market of wellness and travel is getting saturated, especially in Europe. We would need to look at how much of the more health conscious lifestyle can be converted to wellness trips? Or contemporary wellness demand is more like demand for more healthy options in whatever trip one makes? There is a fine line between the general healtharisation of hospitality services and wellness motivation for travel? What is next: wellbeing hospitality and H2H conversions?

SPEAKER
Dr. László Puskó is the Group Managing Partner at Resources for Leisure Assets. He has been working as a travel and tourism expert for over 20 years.

He graduated as an economist specialized in tourism management and following his interests in culture, arts and experiences, he also graduated from Art & Design Management. He completed his PhD in 2000. He has become a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) in 2003. He was manager at KPMG TLT (EMEA) between 2001 and 2004.
He founded The Tourism Observatory for Health, Wellness and Spa (2012).

László participated in more than a hundred projects in research, planning, product development, experience mapping and design, impact assessment and marketing. His key interests are in well-being, wellness, medical tourism, spas and hospitality. László has been lecturing at various international professional and academic conferences. He is the (co-)author of numerous specialised books (e. g.: Health, Tourism and Hospitality, Impacts of Tourism) and articles in professional journals.


You can download the power-point presentation „Wellness Everything – Friend or Foe“ here: http://www.itb-kongress.de/media/itbk/itbk_dl_de/itbk_dl_de_itbkongress/itbk_archiv_2016/wellness/Wellness_Everything-Friend_Or_Foe_Puczk.pdf


WELLNESS-HOTELS & RESORTS
The Wellness-Hotels & Resorts cooperation is the number one choice for holiday-makers when searching for ‘wellness in a hotel’ and has been at the top of the German speaking wellness hotel industry since 1997. Since the original pioneers joined, carefully selected and mostly owner-operated German wellness hotels, as well as international partners in the 4 and 5 star sectors, are part of the cooperation.
Independent tourism experts check the member hotels prior to entry and then at regular intervals in all areas. The Wellness-Hotels & Resorts’ quality seal is awarded by TÜV Rheinland and is the most comprehensive audit carried out within the wellness industry.
With personality and experience, Wellness-Hotels & Resorts’ guests are welcomed by hotel owners and their fully qualified staff, who have expertise in a wide range of wellness aspects. Spacious spa areas, professional wellness treatments and leisure facilities as well as the wellness healthy cuisine make your stay an adventure for the senses.
All member hotels in Germany, Austria and Italy are located in natural surroundings – in the mountains, in the countryside or on the coast. Information on the hotels can be found on the website www.wellnesshotels-resorts.com or in the Wellness-Hotels & Resorts’ catalogue, which can be ordered at the office.
http://www.wellnesshotels-resorts.de