Public Health and Tourism; A Personalist Approach to Community Well-Being: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Given concerns over the public and individual health status of modern society and the scarcity of research on mobility and the health nexus, taking a personalist perspective grounded in spillover theory integrated with broaden-and-build theory, this study uses preventive science ideology and explores the links between tourism and public health through the illustration of the effects of travel on people’s personal, mental, and social well-being (PMS-web). A comprehensive review of the literature which is based on themes initiated from WHO (1948) statement: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” was adopted. Physical, mental, and social (PMS) well-being and tourism/travel keywords were used to search top tier journal articles via the Web of Science and google scholars’ search engines. Findings revealed that a positive linkage exists between travel/tourism and the PMS well-being of individuals that contribute considerably to their state of health per se and is vital to the public health in societies. Although the reviewed tourism literature includes plentiful studies on health/medical tourism or the health issues of host/guests, the lack of focus on the nexus of tourism and public health is sensible.

Keywords

• Individual health
• Public health
• Tourism
• Spillover theory