Searching for Well-being: Exploring Change in Tourist
The relationship between tourism, health and well-being is a complex one based on interactions between the
motivations of the travellers and the opportunities provided by the destinations. Much of the discussion to date has
been dominated by descriptions of emerging opportunities and services, a focus on the provision of services such as
health spas and wellness retreats and definitions based on this supply rather than demand. This paper argues that the
focus on the supply side can distort our understanding of the phenomenon and therefore focuses on the demand side
of wellness tourism and explores tourist motivation in a series of surveys conducted with tourists to Australia’s Great
Barrier Reef region over a seven year period. An analysis of the changing patterns of travel motivation to this
destination provides some evidence that tourist motives to this region have moved towards incorporating a greater
focus on aspects of well-being. More detailed examination of the recent surveys revealed the existence of two motive
clusters with links to wellness – one focussed on family well-being and the other one emphasizing the restorative
elements of being in a natural environment. The results support the existence of two different expressions of an
interest in well-being reflecting an inner–outer directedness dichotomy common in psychology. The paper concludes
with implications for understanding wellness tourism and tourism motivation in general.
Keywords: well-being; inner-directed; outer-directed; Great Barrier Reef; tourist motivation..