Establishment of a value evaluation system for health and wellness tourism resources: Reflections on China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria

Abstract

In recent years, China’s sub-healthy and aging populations have increased dramatically, giving rise to a series of health and wellness needs. People prefer health and wellness tourism activities instead of sightseeing tourism activities because of the increasing emphasis on safety and experience. Health and wellness tourism resources are a prerequisite for the development of health and wellness tourism. To critically reflect on China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria, expert consultation was carried out by applying the Delphi method, and index weights were determined using the analytic hierarchy process. Through three rounds of expert consultation, a value evaluation system for health and wellness tourism resources was established and improved in three aspects: construction of an index system, selection of evaluation subjects, and grade discourse description, thus enhancing the feasibility and application value of the evaluation system. The system developed in this study not only enables a reflection on China’s official tourism resource evaluation criteria, but also presents a new approach in the value evaluation research of health and wellness tourism resources.