Speaking at the first Wellness Tourism Congress in New Delhi (5 October), Jean-Claude Baumgarten, former president of the World Travel and Tourism Council, explained to delegates how the travel and tourism industry originally co-ordinated efforts to promote the profile of the sector to governments by proving it represented 10 per cent of GDP and 11 per cent of employment.

Baumgarten said the wellness tourism sector and the spa sector should unite and employ the same tactics: "The sectors need to decide the key messages they want to convey – keep it simple and focus on top line numbers – things like GDP. Then use the power of the combined spa and wellness tourism communities to spread the word. Everyone in the industry must be on-message in quoting these numbers at every opportunity, at every press briefing, meeting and in every interview."

Politicians are very influenced by research which shows the value of a market against other sectors, he said, urging the wellness tourism industry to compare itself with well known sectors such as manufacturing, automobile and pharmaceuticals.

"Be opportunistic as well," he said, "The travel sector saw a 27 per cent drop in spend after 9/11 and we found at this point it was effective to remind governments how much they were missing it."

Baungarten's comments came as research – carried out by SRI International for the Wellness Tourism Congress – established that the economic impact of global wellness tourism is US$3.1 trillion pa.

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Notes

The inaugural Wellness Tourism Congress (5 October 2013) is running alongside the annual Global Spa and Wellness Summit (6-7 October 2013) in New Delhi, India.