Designing and marketing maternal wellness tourism destinations: insights from user-generated content

Abstract

This study examines the design and marketing of maternal wellness tourism. We adopted a mixed-methods design integrating large-scale user-generated content (≈128,000 entries modeled with Latent Dirichlet Allocation) and 47 semi-structured interviews with expectant mothers; grounded theory guided coding, triangulation, and theory building. We develop a conceptual framework identifying five core dimensions: prenatal safety, psychological restoration, physical comfort, sustainable environment, and informed decision-making. The findings reveal that maternal travel is not purely for leisure but involves complex, risk-averse, and socially influenced decisions. The resulting model integrates the affective, physical, and digital aspects of the travel experience for pregnant women. Practically, it offers marketing insights for destinations, such as building trust through medical partnerships and designing trimester-specific services. The study concludes by advocating for more inclusive and care-oriented tourism planning that aligns with maternal health priorities and sustainable development goals.