Abstract

This study employs a qualitative research approach where focus groups (n = 11) with key stakeholders were used to understand how tourism investors view the concept of well-being in relation to tourism and the potential to use it as a tourism product resource. Findings validated by a wider group (n = 50) exposed the barriers and enablers of implementing well-being in this way. The potential for businesses and policymakers to transform these barriers into enablers was also identified. In addition, study findings were mapped onto a robust model extracted from the public health sector and applied in a tourism context using a systems theory approach. This further highlighted the potential offered to the fields of public health and tourism in the concept of well-being, and demonstrated the well-being value of tourism. Data from this research will aid tourism business practice and development by embedding a well-being philosophy for tourism destinations’ strategies.

Introduction

In 1948 The World Health Organization (WHO) originally proposed that, “Health is not the mere absence of diseases but a state of well-being” and from this point onward well-being has become a challenging concept to define (La Placa & Knight, 2014). Notwithstanding, well-being has been described in numerous ways such as an individual’s optimistic assessment of their lives including contentment, positive emotion, engagement and purpose (Diener & Seligman, 2004). It has also been explained in terms of developing as a person, being fulfilled and making a contribution to the community (Stoll, Michaelson, & Seaford, 2012). While the WHO’s description of health is not a definition of well-being per se; it outlines fundamental principles and demonstrates where the concept originates. Issues such as the association between health and well-being and whether or not well-being should be considered subjective or objective in nature contribute to the contemporary evaluation of well-being from both an economic and psychological viewpoint. Well-being has been used in a broad sense by philosophers, economists and public health professionals to discuss the general population and has also been understood in a narrow sense regarding an individual’s positive functioning. Even so, the concept of well-being extends across a wide range of subject areas including philosophy, public health, economics, policy, academia, research, theory and psychology (Hanlon, Carlisle, & Henderson, 2013); however, it is used sparsely in relation to tourism. It can be conceptualized as resting on a continuum between ‘reactive’ and ‘proactive’ anchors. With regard to this research well-being fits within the proactive conceptualization, as tourism can be considered healthful in nature and guided by the individual (Travis & Ryan, 1981).