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Abstract: Mobile technologies have drastically changed the way people do everyday activities. Tasks previously reserved for desktop environments have moved to mobile devices, and nowadays, half of the internet traffic is stemming from mobile devices. The tourism industry is no exempt from the shift from desktop to mobile. In our research, we check to what extent natural health resorts have adapted and integrated mobile solutions to their websites. We collected data about the friendliness of selected websites using automated online tools and carried out a heuristic evaluation. The results were statistically analyzed and compared. Only roughly half of natural health resorts have optimized their websites for mobile devices. There are no statistically significant differences when comparing purely technical aspects. However, an in-depth heuristic evaluation has shown that some web sites are significantly more mobile-friendly than others and offer better technical conditions for enhanced user experience. Our study is the first technical and contentual evaluation of website mobile devices' friendliness in the natural health resort sector. It warns management, their marketing consultants, and web site developers about the opportunities they are missing by not supporting mobile users sufficiently. Further, it outlines deficiencies and provides suggestions and instructions for optimizing websites to enhance user-friendliness on mobile devices.
Keywords: mobile technology, mobile device, mobile Internet, health tourism, spa, natural health resort, web page, evaluation, heuristics
Published in DKUM: 26.01.2024; Views: 287; Downloads: 41
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Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of wine tourism on well-being. Wine tourism includes many activities, and not only wine tastings, perhaps paired with food tastings. It includes hiking and biking in the vineyards, reading literature on wine (fiction and non-fiction), attending seminars and conferences on wine, getting acquainted with new landscapes and socializing with others. Another issue relates to whether wine, particularly red wine, confers additional health benefits. Within the Mediterranean diet, wine seems to be an essential component. The starting point for wine and health studies was the “French Paradox”, which suggests that consuming red wine daily not only helps the cardiovascular system, but also increases lifespan due to the resveratrol found in the skins and tannins of red grapes. Recent evidence suggests that wine consumption is correlated with less stress and prevention of the development of certain cancers.
Keywords: health, wine tourism, well-being, active life, rural areas
Published in DKUM: 17.01.2024; Views: 235; Downloads: 25
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Abstract: The promotion of physical literacy is an opportunity to multiply significant health benefits in an ageing society. In Slovenia, health resorts are one of the most common prime areas for health enhancement, offering numerous services for individuals to improve their health and forming an important pillar of the social tourism and healthcare sector. The aim of this research is to explore the role of medical rehabilitation at Slovene health resorts in the processes of increasing the physical literacy of their patients. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with previous guests of Slovene health resorts who have undertaken medical rehabilitation. The analysis indicates that the most common approach is providing lectures about physical activity followed by group or individual physical regimes organised for patients with similar health concerns. These actions target two dimensions of physical literacy: the competence and the knowledge/understanding dimension. However, the eventual omission of prescribed physical activity following the rehabilitation is an issue concerning the motivation dimension of physical literacy, which should thus be addressed more in the future. The findings contribute to understanding the role of medical rehabilitation at Slovene health resorts by applying the physical literacy model for older adults. The study provides valuable insights regarding the long-term benefits of rehabilitation at the health resorts on individuals’ level of physical literacy. The results are helpful for both the tourism and medical sectors.
Keywords: health resorts, physical literacy, health tourism, rehabilitation, health literacy, elderly
Published in DKUM: 15.01.2024; Views: 358; Downloads: 11
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Abstract: This master thesis is focused on health literacy in health tourism settings. Health literacy is a concept connected to an individual’s responsibility to understand and act on health information in modern environments. Our assumption is that health tourism is one of the main stakeholders in processes of increasing health literacy levels in the population. For that reason, we questioned what level of health literacy the guests report and whether they recount any cases of improved health literacy during and after their visit. The main goal of the research was discovering whether Slovene health spas are organizations that promote health literacy and what steps they must take for future improvements. For the empirical research we conducted semi-structured interviews with previous guests of Slovene spas that have undertaken stationary rehabilitation due to various health concerns. The analysis method was qualitative content analysis by Philipp Mayring. The transcripts were coded with ATLAS.ti 8 software. The results indicate that guests gain useful information about how they should behave after rehabilitation in everyday life. This information is directly linked to increasing the health literacy of the patient as it is essential for successful rehabilitation and future behavior. The most common process in increasing health literacy levels are the lectures organized for the patients. The topics covered are a healthy diet, suitable exercise and sports, and common medical procedures. With these processes health resorts directly target the health literacy level of their patients.
Keywords: thermal spas, health tourism, health literacy, healthy habits, wellness
Published in DKUM: 09.07.2021; Views: 1247; Downloads: 142
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Abstract: The present study provides a snapshot of Slovenian tourists' perceptions in a historically unique point of time - the early days of the covid-19-related lockdown. Based on an online survey performed in March and April 2020 the study provides first insights into Slovenian tourists% perceived threats of covid-19 on two dimensions: severity and susceptibility; how this depends on their demography and past travel experience and what, in this specific point in time, they think about future travel avoidance. The results have shown that age affects the two measured dimensions of perceived threat and future travel avoidance, but only with women. Furthermore, people who have travelled the most in the past express the least likelihood of avoidance to travel due to the covid -19 pandemic. Those who are more educated, on the other hand, perceive higher risk, yet education has no role in their expressed future travel avoidance. The results, moreover, show that the moral obligation towards taking care of others might be a highly important element in the success factor of covid-19 measures and thus future appeals by the tourism industry. Finally, the results show that we cannot easily predict how the general population will behave regarding their future travel avoidance since the opinions are not polarised in the extremes. This does indicate, however, that tourists will be susceptible to the context-specific factors of future travel decisions, such as assurances of health safety provided by the tourism industry.
Keywords: COVID-19, coronavirus, tourism, health threat perception, future travel avoidance, fear appeals
Published in DKUM: 12.11.2020; Views: 1221; Downloads: 363
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