Evaluation of the State of Existing Memorable Experiences for Spa Tourism: Conceptual Paper

Alemayehu P, Negussie S and Sahle H

Published on: 2025-05-02

Abstract

The memorable experiences from visiting spas and consuming related services remains under researched which has adversely impacted on the development of spa tourism in general. Spas have been in existence from time immemorial and have been consumed by individuals for different purposes. However, the experiences that reside in one’s memory after the visit to a spa and after consuming spa services have not been given due attention by the research community. Thus, a scoping review of literature was conducted to establish and document the existing memorable experiences for spa tourism. Findings indicate that there is dearth of literature directly linked to memorable experiences for spa tourism. Resort hotel spa, township spa and natural springs were established as the inducers of memorable experiences for spa tourism especially in Zimbabwe, Luxury spas that are themed, well packaged and branded are designed to deliver memorable experiences to a niche market inducing positive memorable experiences for spa tourism. However, there is still a significant number of natural springs which have remained underdeveloped, marginalised and undervalued impinging experiences that attract a lucrative niche market to support spa tourism. On the contrary, some natural springs though unattractive, serve only the vulnerable ailing consumers and are not meant for leisure but only maintained as cultural icons inducing a different wave of memorable experiences. The study also observed that the employment of high technology to reconfigure the service scape has eliminated authentic experiences. Further research can therefore be carried out to explore initiatives that can be adopted to create memorable experiences for spa tourism.