TIMS: Acta (Jan 2018)
Education for work in wellness tourism: Case study
Abstract
Popularisation of travels aiming to prevent illnesses of a modern man has resulted in an exceptionally dynamic development of wellness tourism in the world. As one of the fastest growing segments of tourism industry, wellness tourism reaches an annual growth rate that is almost 50% higher than the expected growth rate of the overall global tourism economy. As a service industry in which the human factor plays the most important role, the wellness industry provides a large number of new jobs each year. However, new working positions should be filled by adequately trained and motivated workers. It is therefore necessary to innovate the existing education systems, both in the field of formal and informal education. Finding out how wellness industry workers are trained in Serbia and Slovenia and what kind of changes should be made in that field in order for both of these countries to be competitive on a global market were the main goals of the study conducted as a part of the cross-border cooperation between the Faculty of Sport and Tourism from Novi Sad and Faculty of Tourism in Brežice. The results of the study indicate that the practice of wellness tourism is far more open for innovations in comparison with universities. The study has also shown that, in order to secure quality education of future professionals, it is necessary to establish a closer cooperation between the universities and the leaders in spa and wellness industry.
