ENCOURAGING RELATIONAL MARKETING IN THE WELLNESS AND THERMALISM SEGMENTS

Abstract

The article is dedicated to a tourism segment, especially health, wellness and thermal tourism that are becoming an increasingly popular option for visitors looking to access procedures that are seemingly unavailable to them in their home countries due to lack of affordability, lack of availability or lengthy waiting lists. The better understanding regarding the essence of innovation process and relational marketing: theoretical and practical implications, in specific contexts of health, wellness and thermal tourism in cross-border destinations are provided. This article is suggested as a conceptual paper with a literature review that brings together the major components of innovation and its implications tourist perspective and relationship marketing (i.e. visitor perspective). On the base of in-deep analysis of the scientific literature the classification of health and medical tourism has undergone further development. The presented investigation intends to contribute theoretically to the management of innovation in specific tourism contexts (i.e. wellness, health, and thermal tourism) in cross-border tourist destinations (Portugal and Spain, specifically the Euroregion of Northern Portugal and Galicia). A conceptual model that summarizes the dynamic nature of the triggering process was adapted to the processes in health, wellness, and thermal tourism. A cross-border region as a territory on the border composed of local governments involved in cross-border cooperation agreements was defined. There were also proved that cross-border regions may vary, for example, depending on the degree of cooperation (high or low intensity) or geographic extent (low or high). The special attention to Euroregion which tend to define themselves as micro cross-border regions, with a reduced geographical extension between contiguous spaces was paid. The conceptual model that relates relational marketing and the result of innovation in tourism (favoring trust, commitment, quality of service, satisfaction and loyalty) was suggested. The proposed model describes the relationship between the following variables: cooperation, satisfaction of healthcare and thermal tourism; commitment and satisfaction of healthcare and thermal tourism; trust and satisfaction of healthcare and thermal tourism; general satisfaction of the healthcare and thermal tourism.

Keywords

• thermal tourism, cross-border destination, relationship marketing, wellness