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Tourism Recreation Research

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Yoga Tourism as a Niche Within the Wellness Tourism Market

a bc d
Xinran Y. Lehto Assistant Professor , Sally Brown President and Founder , Yi Chen Graduate Student
e
& Alastair M. Morrison Distinguished Professor
a
Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907,
USA. e-mail:
b
Ambassadair Travel Club
c
Peace through Yoga. She is also completing her Ph.D. from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
47907, USA. e-mail:
d
same university.
e
Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907,
USA. e-mail:
Published online: 12 Jan 2015.

To cite this article: Xinran Y. Lehto Assistant Professor, Sally Brown President and Founder, Yi Chen Graduate Student & Alastair M.
Morrison Distinguished Professor (2006) Yoga Tourism as a Niche Within the Wellness Tourism Market, Tourism Recreation Research,
31:1, 25-35, DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2006.11081244

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2006.11081244

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 TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH VOL. 31(1), 2006: 25-35

Yoga Tourism as a Niche Within the

Wellness Tourism Market
XINRAN Y LEHTO, SALLY BROWN, Yl CHEN and ALASTAIR M. MORRISON
Yoga tourism has emerged and grown with the 'travel to feel well' trend. This study explored this under-researched
market by interviewing and surveying a group of yoga retreat participants in central Indiana, USA. This research,
while exploratory in nature, delineated the socio-demographic and motivational characteristics of yoga tourists and
provided empirical evidences that an individual's involvement level with yoga, physical health as well as mental well-
being positively contribute to the propensity to travel for yoga. The findings bear practical relevance for tour operators
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and destinations that are trying to develop niche travel markets by tapping into the growing special-interest tourism
market. This research provides a good baseline for future research on the yoga tourism phenomenon.

Keywords: yoga tourists, special-interest tourism, health and wellness tourism, involvement, well-being.

Introduction strategically incorporated the 'travel for wellness' concept

Despite its growing popularity in recent years, yoga is
hardly a modern-day phenomenon. It grew out of ancient
Indian culture and has been practised for more than 5,000
years. As an activity, yoga has been one of the fastest growing
pursuits in the US. For example, a 2001 survey showed that
more than 18 million people are practising yoga regularly.
That number, experts say, is still climbing. Yoga is not a
religion but is meant for individual growth and for physical,
emotional, intellectual, and spiritual balance (Iyengar 1989).
The mounting pressures and stresses of contemporary urban
living have led to the search for a more holistic approach to
life. Yoga appears to have become one of the answers to that
need. American doctor Halbert Dunn developed the concept
of 'wellness' in 1959. He wrote for the first time about a
special state of health comprising an overall sense of well-
being, which sees man as consisting of body, spirit and mind.
Ardell (1977, 1986) further expanded this concept, seeing
wellness as a state of health featuring the harmony of body,
mind, and spirit. Wellness tourism, according to Mueller
and Kaufmann (2001), is 'the sum of all the relationships
and phenomena resulting from a journey and residence by
people whose main motive is to preserve or promote their
health'. As travelling for wellness becomes an increasingly
sought -after visitor experience, tourism destinations have
into their product offerings. The state of Hawaii actively
promotes the comforting, healing properties of its islands
for visitors in search of solace or respite, along with its 'warm
waters, trade winds and special people' (Hawaii Health and
Wellness).
Yoga tourism has emerged and grown with the 'travel
to feel well' trend. Yoga tourism can be viewed as a subset of
wellness tourism. Yoga means union of body, mind, and
spirit. Yoga is widely believed to provide an avenue to reduce
stress, improve breathing, build strength, and gain flexibility.
With the vast range of styles- from the soft Viniyoga to the
vigorous Ashtanga (power) yoga - this discipline offers
something for everyone. Physicians in the US and abroad
are conducting a variety of studies gauging whether yoga
offers health benefits beyond general fitness. Early results
suggest that it can provide relief for patients suffering from
asthma, chronic back pain, arthritis, and obsessive-
compulsive disorder, among other problems (Parker-Pope
2002). Yoga seems to have grown in popularity as a powerful
relief for the increasing stress and pressures that ail
individuals in contemporary society. For many individuals,
yoga has become the centrepiece in their pursuit of a balanced
life. Yoga has also increasingly become a tourism

XINRAN Y. LEHTO is Assistant Professor in Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907,
USA. e-mail: xinran@purdue.edu
SALLY BROWN is President of Ambassadair Travel Club and founder of Peace through Yoga. She is also completing her Ph.D. from Purdue
University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. e-mail: Sally.Brown@iflyata.com
YI CHEN is a Graduate Student at the same university.
ALASTAIR M. MORRISON is Distinguished Professor, Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Purdue University, West Lafayette,
IN 47907, USA. e-mail: alastair@purdue.edu

©2006 Tourism Recreation Research

 Yoga Tourism as a Niche Market: X. Y. Lehto, S. Brown, Y. Chen & A. M. Morrison
phenomenon. Yoga is not only practised on a daily basis,
but also on vacations. For some people, practising yoga
constitutes the central theme for their vacation. With the
increase in yoga retreats, seminars and conferences,
individuals are using their vacation time to strive for a more
balanced life through yoga. However, research on yoga
tourists is virtually non-existent. Since there is less written
about the phenomenal growth in yoga tourism, it is essential
to acknowledge and research this area separately from
'wellness' tourism.
The phenomenon of yoga tourism is relatively new and
academic research in this area is in its infancy stage. The
shortage of information about the demand for yoga tourism
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has made it hard for tourism practitioners to develop and
serve this niche market. There is a need to answer some basic
questions about this market. For instance, Who are the yoga
tourists? What motivates individuals to participate in yoga-
oriented activities away from home? What types of
destinations and settings do the yoga tourists prefer? What
are the prominent factors that impact and dictate yoga
tourism participation? This study explored this under-
researched market by interviewing and surveying a group
of yoga retreat participants in central Indiana, US. More
specifically, this research assessed the underlining
dimensions and factors of yoga tourists' motivations, and
uncovered factors that could potentially influence yoga
practitioners' propensity to travel for yoga purposes.
Literature Review
Yoga tourism is a subset ofwellness tourism, and they
both fall within the overall realm ofspecial-interesttourism.
The literature review examined yoga tourism phenomenon
both in the broader context of special-interest tourism and
against the more specific setting of wellness tourism.
Consumer involvement theory that has been applied by
researchers to explain high-involvement products such as
special-interest tourism was also reviewed in an attempt to
build some theoretical foundation for this research.
Special-Interest Tourism and Yoga Tourism
The development of tourism has been accompanied by
a diversification of tourist motivations and competition
among similar products from a variety of destinations.
special-interest tourism (SIT) has grown against this
background to become an important niche market for
destinations that are growing or expanding their market
shares (Weiler and Hall1992). A number of researchers have
proposed definitions for SIT from various perspectives
(Brotherton and Himmetoglu 1997; Douglas et al. 2001; Read
1980; Redekop 1999; Weiler and Hall1992; WTO 1985). By
26
generalizing and synthesizing previous research work,
Redekop 1999 defined SIT as niche markets developed by
specific sites or places for groups or individuals who wish
to develop certain interests and visit sites and places
connected with a specific subject such as yoga or sports.
Special-interest tourists tend to share a common hobby or
interest that bonds them.
The development of SIT reflects the need of travellers to
spend free time more profitably by engaging in cultural,
physical, educational and spiritual activities (WTO 1985).
Factors such as demographic characteristics, individual or
group philosophies or ideologies, advances in
communications and attitudes towards leisure, all have
profoundly altered the pattern of demand for tourism and
led to the creation of new forms of tourism products (Garcia-
Altes 2005). These factors were further demonstrated in
several research works on SIT. The World Tourism
Organization's report (1985) on active holidays and special-
interest tourism revealed that three lifestyle changes had an
impact on people's travel patterns. The role that work served
to democratize well-being and to produce a widespread
consumer society has given way from the traditional
concentration on material goods to training and education
and gradually to leisure and holidays. Medical advances
have also contributed significantly to an increasing emphasis
on the mental health of people living in industrialized and
highly automated urban surroundings. In urban and
industrialized centres, leisure and tourism have become
essential to health, physical and mental well-being.
Subsequently, people are now demanding more experience-
based tourism products on vacations in addition to being
surrounded by pleasant environments. Responding to these
needs, came the rapid development of increasingly
specialized and experience-based tourism product offerings.
Trauer (2005) proposed that SIT tourists' motivations were
multi-faceted in nature. In addition to treating SIT activities
as status symbols, self-image, or a means to gain social
acceptance and recognition, SIT was also perceived as
facilitating personal fulfillment, happiness and paradise.
SIT research has embraced yoga tourism as one of the
subjects within its typology. As early as 1985, the World
Tourism Organization placed yoga within five groups of
special-interest and active holidays under the category of
social life and competition (WTO 1985). SIT has increasingly
captured the attention of researchers, as is evident in the
increasing amount of conceptual and empirical research
work on this subject. However, few existing studies on SIT
have dealt directly with yoga tourism as a form of SIT.
Nonetheless, SIT development and conceptualization
provides a general background and support for the growth
Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 31, No. 1, 2006
 Yoga Tourism as a Niche Market: X. Y. Lehto, S. Brown, Y. Chen & A.M. Morrison
of and research on yoga tourism.
Yoga tourism is well developed within the SIT
programmes of several destinations, such as India, the origin
of yoga activity, where flocks of yoga practitioners spend
their vacations (Yoga Tourism: online) and Turkey, where
yoga breaks were offered in 2003 near Antalya on the
country's southern coast as a part of the Turkey special-
interest and activity holiday series (Yoga Breaks Offered
2003). For destinations, yoga tourism is a product concept
that is based on 'celebrating your destination with yoga'
('Concept of yoga tourism': online). While introducing yoga
practices, retreats, or seminars into visitors' itineraries, the
yoga tourism experience is usually provided together with
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enjoying local art, history, monuments and nature. As
demonstrated in various yoga tourism programmes, the hub
and the theme in this form of tourism is the yoga practice,
around which the total travel experience is planned and
developed. This form of tourism is well suited as a component
of the larger context of SIT, which has been growing to fulfil
travellers' unique needs by developing customized special-
interest travel experiences or products.
While there has been no empirical research on yoga
tourism, there has been some initial exploration in trade
articles on yoga tourist typologies based on travel motives
(Spence 2001). While spurred by the broad environmental
changes and lifestyle movements, yoga tourism motivations
were seen as being derived from three important 'push'
factors that served as the drawing factors for people to go for
yoga trips and vacations and thus fuelled the demand for
yoga tourism (The Best of Kerala 2005; Spence 2001). The
first push factor is to 'get away from routine work' that could
help balance work with wellness and relaxation during or
after work. As reflected in yoga trip and vacation offerings,
yoga breaks have been offered as the main activity or are
included as part of travel packages targeted at those who
seek relief from the 'work battlefield'. The second push factor
is to 'seek an authentic yoga experience' in which yoga lovers
look forward to quality and specific care and authentic yoga
training courses. Travellers in this group tend to be very
knowledgeable in the subject area of yoga and practice it
frequently. The yoga tours promoted by entities such as the
yoga associations and magazines are mostly targeted at this
group of travellers (Hill 2004). The third push factor is to
'enjoy yoga fun', which motivates travellers to enjoy yoga as
a fun activity while they spend their vacations away from
home. Yoga tours are well incorporated in some vacation
packages such as beach or seaside vacations, and
honeymoons (Searle 2005; Sternthal2005). Individuals with
these motivations constitute the majority of the yoga tourist
group; however, they may participate in different activities
and travel in various patterns. As Klein (2002) indicated,
Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 31, No. 1, 2006
'For many, yoga means spiritual nourishment. But for others,
it's just, well, nourishment'. That is, the varying levels of
attitude towards yoga could lead to different behavioural
and psychological outcomes. From this overall framework
of SIT, the 'special-ness' of the activities and the 'special-
ness' of the tourists can be discerned.
Wellness Tourism and Yoga Tourism
The relevant wellness tourism literature is reviewed in
this section as it provides a conceptual and methodological
backdrop for researching yoga tourism. Travelling to improve
an individual's health, such as through cruising or a change
in climate, has long been a motive for travel (Mathieson and
Wall1982). The earliest form of health tourism dates back to
two millennia ago in India, Greece and Persia, at a time when
Greek physicians espoused the therapeutic values of
particular environments (Douglas et al. 200 1). Mineral baths
and spas in England, Baden-Baden in Germany and Vichy
in France were the most famous places and are still popular
places to visit (Douglas et al. 2001). As a result of the
increasing physical, moral and spiritual 'damage' of urban
living at the turn of the century, wellness tourism has
witnessed a resurgence in contemporary society (Weiler and
Hall1992). The escape or 'push' from a mundane, alienating
urban environment has been recognized as a major
motivating force in tourism; the desire for a healthy lifestyle,
which is a significant intrinsic reward of travel, is also a
major contributor (Weiler and Hall1992). Capitalizing on
this resurgence, tourism industry practitioners have
advocated healthy, holistic type of vacations. Lederman
(1996) suggests that a vacation should affect a person in a
meaningful and permanent way. In her book 'Vacations That
Can Change Your Life', she profiles holistic vacations that
address the 'whole person' by fully integrating mind, body,
and spirit. She also lists retreats that have a spiritual focus;
describes adventures that heal the body or mind/spirit after
abuse, trauma, substance abuse, or illness; and details a
variety of learning vacations that teach specific skills such
as foreign languages, defensive driving, backpacking, music,
art, crafts, writing, homebuilding, and cooking. The central
benefit for the provision of these activities is to maintain and
improve psychological and physical health and functions,
according to Lederman.
While health and wellness tourism has historically
been present in tourism, it has long been dominated by the
sub-sector of spa tourism, the initial form of health and
wellness tourism. The spa business has witnessed renewed
popularity in contemporary society and has burgeoned into
a $10.7 billion industry. The number of destinations, resorts,
and day spas has risen to about 9,600 in the US and 1,300 in
Canada (Fodor 2003). The growth in the number of hotels
27
 Yoga Tourism as a Niche Market: X. Y. Lehto, S. Brown, Y. Chen & A. M. Morrison
and resort spas has been outpaced by the growth in the
overall spa industry, according to a 2002 survey
commissioned by the International Spa Association, the
largest trade association for spa professionals.
Several definitions for health and wellness tourism
were proposed, based on the spa tourism model. For example,
Mel Zuckerman's definition (Verschuren 2004), proposed
in the early 1980s, was arguably regarded as the best
description of health and wellness tourism though
containing more information on spa tourism:
Today's total spa-places providing programmes devoted to
an individual's health and fitness, redesigned to make the
guests feel significantly better than when they arrived.
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The combination of fun, exercise, a healthy and balanced
diet, pampering relaxation, and education on managing
stress offers magnificent chance for renewal. A spa is a
comfortable environment in which to learn how to use the
tools of life enhancement and get motivated to back into the
real world and practice what they have learned.
While yoga tourism used to be placed within the
category of social life and competition or sport sector by the
WTO (1985), it is mostly regarded as a sub-category of health
or wellness tourism as they share common functional
characteristics in travel motivations and social values, which
emphasize improving an individual's quality of life and
involve relatively active participation, often in outdoor
settings (Weiler and Hall 1992). Yoga tourism and spa
tourism appear to share some common features in terms of
why individuals pursue them. They sometimes share
common spaces, too, with a significant number of yoga
programmes offered in the spas, resorts and retreats' settings
(Fodor 2003).
The search for wellness is derived from both physical
and mental conditions. Wellness elements include exercise,
a healthy diet, use of vitamins/supplements, following a
prescribed personal programme, and fulfilling emotional,
mental or spiritual needs (Verschuren 2004). Moreover,
today' s health and well ness consumer seeks to look and feel
better, to lose weight, to slow the effects of ageing, to relieve
pain or discomfort, to manage stress, or to partake in the use
of natural supplements like vitamins and minerals to
improve their health (Gold Coast City: online). While these
elements serve as underlying factors for the booming wellness
tourism phenomenon, they may also represent many of the
factors that influence yoga tourists' travel motivations.
Besides the elements shared with health and wellness
tourism, yoga tourism particularly represents holistic,
naturopathic, alternative, aboriginal, Eastern medicinal
practices/therapies that meet the demand for fitness
improvement, healthy lifestyle education, nutrition
counselling, healing, preventative medicine, solving personal
28
problems, and relieving, or alleviating, stress or depression.
In this context, yoga tourism, similar to the general wellness
tourism programmes, may fulfil these needs. The wellness
tourism literature to a large extent provides a theoretical
platform and methodological measurements for constructing
a basic research model on yoga tourism.
In synthesizing the literature on special-interest tourism
and health and wellness tourism, and their relationships
with yoga tourism, this research proposed that:
Proposition 1: There are varying motivational factors
that underlie the yoga tourism phenomenon.
Proposition 2: Individuals' mental and physical well-
being influences their propensity to travel as yoga tourists.
Leisure Involvement
Involvement theory was originally introduced in the
social sciences literature, but has been adopted and studied
extensively in the field of marketing and consumer behaviour,
especially in the context ofleisure and recreation. According
to Rothchild (1984) and Kapferer and Laurent (1985),
involvement is 'an unobservable state of motivation, arousal
or interest. It is evoked by a particular stimulus or situation
and has drive properties and behavioral consequences'.
Tourism researchers have adopted involvement theory from
leisure studies. Most research in leisure and tourism has
centred on the enduring properties ofleisure and recreation
activities and their relationship with ego (Havitz and
Dimanche 1997). According to Havitz and Dimanche (1997),
leisure involvement is used to refer to how people think about
leisure and recreation and their behaviour consequences
such as the individual's engagement with various
recreational activities and associated products, leisure
services, or settings. Researchers have considered
involvement from various perspectives. Attempts to measure
involvement in the recreation and tourism literature have
generally focused on the antecedents or the behavioural
consequences of involvement (Havitz and Dimanche 1990).
It is apparent that antecedents or consequences of
involvement offer insights into understanding tourists'
behavioural tendencies. They give directions to product and
service development and are of very practical value for
targeted marketing programmes. Accordingly, this research
also proposed that:
Proposition 3: Different levels of involvement with yoga
will lead to varying levels of propensity to travel as yoga
tourists.
The dimensionality of involvement has been a critical
issue for researchers. They have devoted most effort towards
Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 31, No. 1, 2006
 Yoga Tourism as a Niche Market: X. Y. Lehto, S. Brown, Y. Chen & A.M. Morrison
conceptually exploring and refining its measures and
constructs. Many researchers treated involvement as uni-
dimensional and tended to use single-faceted scales to
measure it. Others treated involvement as a multi-faceted
concept. Havitz and Dimanche (1990, 1997) proposed that
multi-faceted scales are more app rap riate than single-faceted
scales for measuring leisure and tourism involvement, and
hence proposed a four-faceted concept that they would
represent enduring leisure involvement. The four facets were
as follows:
Leisure Involvment
1 Attraction: the perceived interest/importance of
the product or activities, a pleasure or hedonic
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value of the product or activities derived from
participation or use;
2 Sign or symbolic value attributed by the consumer
to the product, its purchase or consumption;
3 Centrality to lifestyle: including both social
contexts such as friends and families-centred
around activities and the central role of the
activities in an individual's life;
4 The perceived risk associated with the product
purchase
Source: Havitz and Dimanche 1997
This research followed the multi-dimensionality of
involvement argument and designed measurement
statements for yoga involvement based on the four facets
proposed by Havitz and Dimanche 1997.
Data and Methodology
Self-administered surveys were distributed to 80
individuals at a yoga retreat that was held in a Midwest US
resort in October 2004. A total of 75 retreat participants
responded to the survey questions. The questionnaire
collected information about
(1) yoga vacation motivations;
(2) yoga vacation trip characteristics such as travel party
composition, money spent, and destination
preferences;
(3) perceived physical well-being, mental well-being, and
yoga involvement levels; and
(4) socio-demographic factors.
To obtain information not captured by the structured
survey questions, a comment card was also given to all
participants for them to give feedback on preferences about
Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 31, No. 1, 2006
yoga destinations and additional motivational factors.
Measures and Statistical Analysis
• Eighteen Likert -scale statements were employed to
capture the respondents' motivations for taking yoga-
centred leisure trips. Since there were no prior
measurement scales tested or proven for use to assess
yoga tourism motivation, the 18 measurement
statements for this study were developed based on an
extensive review of the yoga literature, input from yoga
experts (yoga instructors) and traditions of travel
motivational scales.
• A five-item scale was used to measure the respondents'
general sense of mental well-being including their
assessment of general satisfaction about life, how they
felt about jobs, family relationships, and other social
relations such as with colleagues and friends.
• A five-item Likert scale was developed to assess
respondents' level of involvement with yoga. The
involvement scale was adapted from Havitz and
Dimanche's (1997) multi-dimensional definition of
involvement.
The data analysis followed a three-step procedure:
(1) Mean and frequency analysis were first used to provide
a general profile of the sampled respondents.
(2) Factor analysis was performed on the 18 motivational
statements. Factor analysis is a multivariate statistical
method for dimensionalizing data and detecting
structure. For this research, it was employed to detect
underlying dimensions of yoga tourism, thus
addressing the aforementioned proposition one, i.e.,
there are varying motivational factors that underlie the
yoga tourism phenomenon. While factor scores were
generated through the factor analysis, the mean values
of each original motivational statement were used
while assessing yoga tourism motivations. The decision
to go for original statements instead of using factor
scores was due to the small sample size in this study.
Additionally, by using the original statements, more
variation in motivations was captured.
(3) Lastly, multiple regression analysis was conducted.
Multiple linear regression attempts to model the
relationship between two or more explanatory variables
and a response variable by fitting a linear equation to
the observed data. In this research, it was used to assess
how well an individual's mental and physical well-
being along with their yoga involvement level could
29
 Yoga Tourism as a Niche Market: X. Y. Lehto, S. Brown, Y. Chen & A. M. Morrison
predict their likelihood to take yoga trips
(aforementioned propositions 2 and 3) and what the
relative importance of these factors are.
Research Findings
Profile ofYoga Tourists
The yoga tourists in general had higher levels of
education with over 21.5 per cent holding a Master's or Ph.D.
degree and another 31.7 per cent holding Bachelor's degrees.
In general, the household incomes of yoga tourists were high
with close to 40 per cent reporting incomes of $100,000 and
higher. The respondents were predominantly females (85.9
per cent). More than half of the respondents were middle-
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aged (35-54). The single largest group (45 per cent) of the
yoga tourists was from either the professional or technical
fields. The types of jobs they held usually required
'specialized knowledge' (44 per cent), 'working with many
people' (37 per cent), 'specialized skills' (36 per cent) and 'a
lot of mental effort' (34 per cent). In contrast, 'sedentary jobs'
(17 per cent), 'a lot of travelling' (6 per cent) and 'a lot of
physical labour' (4 per cent) were not common within this
group. On the average, the respondents worked 38.35 hours
a week.
The top five motivations (based on a one-to-five scale
with M=five indicating the highest agreement) for going on
a yoga trip were:
• 'to renew myself' (M = 4.46)
• 'to relax' (M = 4.46)
• 'to be more flexible in body and mind' (M = 4.42)
• 'to let go of stress from a busy life' (M = 4.41)
• 'to help me gain a sense of balance' (M = 4.38)
In terms of trip characteristics, almost half of the
respondents travelled with friends (47.8 per cent), while
another 27.5 per cent travelled solo. Travelling with spouses,
parents or other family members appeared to be not as
popular. On average, the respondents had taken 2.54 yoga
trips (with yoga as the primary purpose of the trip) in the
past five years. The majority of the respondents (68.5 per
cent) spent less than $1,250 per trip on an individual basis.
Over half of them (56.5 per cent) stated that they were likely
or very likely to take another yoga trip in the coming year.
The respondents were also very well travelled individuals
with an average of 5.36 overnight leisure trips over the past
two years. When asked about what would be an ideal location
or setting for a yoga trip, the consensus seemed to be
somewhere 'warm/sunny /tropical and near water'. Parallel
to that, the most frequently mentioned destination was Costa
Rica.
30
These yoga tourists were highly involved with
practising yoga on a daily basis. Half of the respondents
(50.7 per cent) were avidly practising yoga either on a daily
basis or once every two days. The majority of the respondents
attended yoga classes at a yoga centre near home (80 per
cent). Half of them (55.2 per cent) had been doing yoga for
five or more years. In terms of their physical and mental
well-being, the overwhelming majority of the yoga tourists
rated their current physical health condition as good or
excellent (9 2. 6 per cent). Further, these individuals appeared
to be physically very active. Over 80 per cent participated in
physical exercise regularly (a few times a week or daily).
Further, the yoga tourists also seemed to be happy people.
They were generally satisfied with their 'perso nallife' (42. 9
per cent stating 'very happy'), 'family life' (34.9 per cent
stating 'very happy'), 'relationship with colleagues' (22.6
per cent stating 'very happy') and 'job' (23.3 per cent stating
'very happy'), 'friends' (33.3 per cent stating 'very happy').
They also reported that on an average day, they had about
one to two hours to relax and pursue activities that they
enjoy (63.3 per cent).
Factor Analysis ofYoga Tourism Motivations
To assess the dimensionality of yoga tourists'
motivational factors, exploratory factor analysis was
conducted on the 18 yoga trip motivation statements. The
extraction method used was the Principal Components
Analysis with Varimax rotation and Kaiser Normalization.
Four factors emerged from the analysis (Table 1). They
explained 69 per cent of the original variance and they all
carried Eigenvalues higher than one. By examining the factor
loadings of the statements that loaded heavily on each factor,
these four factors were labelled as: (1) seeking spirituality;
(2) enhancing mental well-being; (3) enhancing physical
condition; and (4) controlling negative emotions (Figure 1).
The statement 'to get away from daily routine' was excluded
from all four factors as it failed to load heavily on any of
them (below 0.4 on all four factors). It is not clear as why this
statement failed to load high on any of the four factors. One
possible explanation could be that yoga practitioners are
integrating yoga into their daily routine and it is a way of
facing 'real life' rather than escaping from it.
(A) The 'seeking spirituality' dimension
1. 'To give me clarity in making decisions',
2. 'To deepen my spirituality',
3. 'To renew myself,
4. 'To meet and interact with people with similar
interests', and
5. 'To attend yoga seminars that are not available in
my home area.'
Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 31, No. 1, 2006
 Yoga Tourism as a Niche Market: X. Y. Lehto, S. Brown, Y. Chen & A.M. Morrison

(B) The 'enhancing mental well-being' dimension was where a= the regression constant and 13 1... 13 k =
represented by partial regression coefficients
1. 'To remember to be happy and grateful', The dependent variable (Y) was represented by 'how
2. 'To let go of stress from a busy life', likely are you in the coming year to take a yoga trip (yoga as
3. 'To relax', the main purpose of trip)'. The independent variables XI x2
4. 'To be more flexible in body and mind' and X3 X4 were represented by: (1) level of yoga involvement (X);
(2)' physical health condition (X 2); (3) general sense of mental
5. 'To help me gain a sense of balance in life.'
well-being (X); and (4) income (XJ
(C) The third dimension, 'enhancing physical condition' was
represented by The literature indicates that an individual's level of
1. 'To exercise', involvement with a particular activity can lead to
behavioural consequences. Therefore, the level of
2. 'To strengthen my muscles, especially arms and
involvement with yoga (X 1) was used as one of the
abdominal',
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independent variables. Past research has shown that

3. 'To tone my body' and involvement, the emotional status with an object or activity,
4. 'To keep me from overeating.' is a multi-dimensional construct. Applying Havitz and
(D) The last dimension on controlling negative emotions' was Dimanche's 1997 multi-dimensional definition of
represented by two statements: involvement, the construct of 'yoga involvement' was
represented by the following statements:
1. 'To help me not get angry' and
2. 'To help me not feel anxious.' 'I feel my life is fulfilled through yoga and meditation'

Multiple Regression 'Yoga and meditation is an important part of my life'

In order to examine factors that potentially influence
the likelihood of taking a yoga trip in the coming year,
multiple regression analysis was used. The model tested was
explained as follows:
'The spirit of yoga is similar to my values'
'If there is a conflict of schedule, I prefer to go for yoga than
other activities', and
' I can spend a whole day doing yoga and meditation without
doing anything else'.

Table 1. Exploratory Factor Analysis on Yoga Trip Motivations

Motivations Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4
To relax -0.20508 0.715415 0.119698 0.452634
To let go of stress from a busy life -0.06017 0.697536 0.32983 0.25826
To excise 0.02305 0.496708 0.635044 0.03401
To remember to be happy and grateful 0.449671 0.739983 0.088374 0.142957
To strengthen my muscles -0.03921 0.089862 0.914834 0.046652
To tone my body 0.10416 0.236258 0.848105 0.128143
To be more flexible in body and mind 0.330701 0.701029 0.393358 0.081677
To help me not get angry 0.317915 0.333722 0.176854 0.740739
To help me not feel anxious 0.428451 0.356309 0.010555 0.66946
To keep me from overeating 0.193232 0.036775 0.569451 0.535475
To give me clarity in making decisions 0.749796 0.099837 0.217224 0.24991
To deepen my spirituality 0.84064 0.332391 0.04078 0.077471
To attend yoga seminars that are not available in my home area 0.645671 0.072006 0.069341 0.262647
To meet and interact with people with similar interests 0.789441 -0.04723 -0.00426 0.147213
To get away from daily routines 0.276023 0.016378 0.352485 0.314288
To renew myself 0.568722 0.426268 0.251193 -0.12471
To help me gain a sense of balance in life 0.43691 0.721272 0.143279 0.081915
To improve my physical health 0.196741 0.239494 0.762085 0.079034

Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 31, No. 1, 2006 31

 Yoga Tourism as a Niche Market: X. Y. Lehto, S. Brown, Y. Chen & A. M. Morrison

These statements represented the centrality, or the
importance of yoga to one's life. The Cronbach's Alpha value
was high at 0.85, indicating good internal consistency for
the five statements. An index of the additive value of all five
statements was used to represent the involvement construct.
The yoga literature revealed that enhancing one's
physical condition is one of the key motivations for partaking
in yoga. Self-evaluation of physical health (X 2) was used as
the second independent variable for possible contributing
factor for going on a yoga trip. The literature also suggests
that yoga participants are motivated by an increasing sense
of balance and happiness. Five Likert-scale sense of
happiness variables were used to represent the sense of
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yoga trip. The positive signs for yoga involvement, physical
health, and mental well-being indicated that all three factors
would positively influence participation in a yoga trip. The
size of the standardized coefficient for each independent
variable represents the effect size of the independent variables
on the dependent variable. For example, the effect size of
yoga involvement with the likelihood of taking a yoga trip
was 0.30, indicating that a one unit increase in yoga
involvement will result in 0.30 unit increase in likelihood of
taking a yoga trip while holding all the other independent
variables constant. Similarly, the effect sizes for physical
health condition and mental well-being were 0.35 and 0.22,
respectively.

happiness and well-being (X). These statements were:
'I feel happy about my job', 'I feel happy about my personal
life', 'I feel happy about my family life', 'I feel happy about
my relationship with my colleagues', and 'I feel happy
about my relationship with friends.'
The Cronbach's Alpha value was as high at 0.81,
indicating good internal consistency of the abvoe five
statements.
The tolerance statistic, an indicator for multi-colinearity
level, was much higher than 0.20, indicating that that there
were no significant multi-colinearity problems among the
independent variables. This indicates good stability of the
beta coefficients. The Durbin-Watson statistic at 1.972
indicates uncorrelated error terms, again indicating a good
fit of the model.

The past literature in tourism has shown that income

level has a strong influence on an individual's ability to
travel. The income variable (X~ was introduced in the model
to account for variances determined by a person's financial
freedom to engage in leisure travel. As indicated by Table 2,
the overall model was significant at the p = 0.05 level. The
model accounted for about 28.9 per cent of the variances (R 2
= 0.289). Yoga involvement, physical health condition, and

mental well-being were significant (p < 0.05) in explaining

the likelihood of an individual taking a yoga trip. The income
variable was not significant in impacting intention to take a

Table 2. Regression Model: Likelihood of Taking a Yoga

Trip
Independent Standardized
variables Coefficients t Sig. Tolerance
Yoga
Figure 1. The Dimensionality ofYoga Tourism
involvement 0.30 2.58305 0.012 0.806716
Motivation
Physical health 0.35 3.178606 0.002 0.896405
Mental well-
being 0.22 2.073409 0.042 0.959502
Discussion and Implications
Household This research shows that the typical yoga tourists are
income -0.01 -0.13412 0.894 0.884105 predominantly females in their forties, working as
Sum of Mean professionals, and with higher than average household
Squares df Square F Sig. incomes. Their jobs seem to require interacting with people,
Regression 24.34712 4 6.086779 6.609898 0.000158 special skills as well as mental efforts. While they appear to
Residual 59.85578 65 0.920858 have busy schedules with long working hours, they seem to
Total 84.2029 69 be generally happy people satisfied with work and family
R2 ~ 0.289 and social life. They also tend to be very well travelled. When

32 Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 31, No. 1, 2006

 Yoga Tourism as a Niche Market: X. Y. Lehto, S. Brown, Y. Chen & A.M. Morrison
they undertake travel specifically for yoga, they tend to be
accompanied with friends or by themselves. Their yoga
destination preferences appear to be either a nature-based
setting not too far from home or beach resorts with warm
climates. As for motivations for taking yoga trips, the factor
analysis showed there were four major dimensions
underlying the motivational statements. These four
dimensions seem to be consistent with the four benefits that
yoga practitioners believe that yoga brings them: spirituality,
physical and mental health as well as emotional balance. A
strong sentiment from the open-ended comment cards was
the joy of practising yoga with people who shared similar
interests. A yoga trip is deemed as the 'best balming effect'
and 'best dose of calming effect' on participants. A yoga trip
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seems to be a luxury that busy working professionals perceive
as contributing to a balanced life.
Although most of the current literature falls into the
area of spa tourism, general knowledge about health and
wellness tourism depicts a phenomenon more akin to yoga
tourism. Health and wellness tourism programmes are
professionally delivered to help individuals find and
maintain a sense or attitude of well-being or find personal
fulfillment, meaning and purpose in life while combining
the quest for health and wellness through travel, leisure,
and fun (Verschuren 2004). These wellness benefits could
potentially be shared and sought after through yoga tourism
programmes. This exploratory study provided some
empirical evidence and support for Verschuren's
proposition.
While health and wellness tourism are usually treated
as one area and cited without differentiation, these are very
different tourism products. Verschuren (2004) posits that
individuals with medical conditions travel to experience
therapies that will help to make them well or to improve
their health. A person who seeks a wellness travel experience,
however, is generally healthy to start with, and seeks
therapies to maintain his or her well-being. Applying
Verschuren's definition, yoga tourism seems to fall into the
'wellness' dimension of health and wellness tourism.
Holistic programmes such as yoga retreats make use of
positive thinking, visualizations and workouts
synchronizing body and mind. Yoga tourists actively seek
to enhance emotional, intellectual, spiritual wholeness, in
addition to physical well-being. Yoga tourists mostly are
physically healthy as the perceived physical condition of an
average yoga tourist is very high. The multiple regression
analysis results show that perceived physical well-being
does have an impact on individuals' future yoga travel
propensity.
This research also bears some implications for yoga
Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 31, No. 1, 2006
tourism product planning and marketing. Ricci (2003) stated
that many Americans now turn to yoga in search of inner
peace or at least an hour or two of tranquility. But oftentimes,
this is not enough, so more and more yoga practitioners are
looking to spend their coveted vacation time at a yoga retreat
to combat the effects of 60-plus-hour work weeks and chronic
multi-tasking. This research lends empirical support to
Ricci's 2003 observations. The research indicates that serious
yoga practitioners would just travel for the purpose of
practising yoga (yoga as a trip purpose). The question is,
'What programmes could better suit their needs?' It seems
that opportunities to interact with people with similar
interests and building camaraderie and mutual support play
an important role for motivating yoga tourists in addition to
other factors such as the quality of seminars and venues. As
far as destination preferences for yoga trips is concerned, it
appears that yoga tourists are happy to just visit a sunny
place, ideally with a beach or water body around. The desire
to go to the 'home' of yoga- i.e., different regions oflndia- is
not apparent in this research. However, due to the small
sample size, this result should be interpreted with caution.
More rigorous examination is needed in terms of how
important destination settings are to yoga tourists. This could
be a research area of interest that bears important implications
for tour operators targeting and serving this niche market.
A further implication is that the level of yoga
involvement has a positive impact on yoga tourism. As
discussed in the literature review, special-interest tourists
follow an advancing ladder in developing their activity
preferences. As their involvement levels with an activity
increase, they move from being generalists to specialists. This
scenario could well be mapped with yoga tourists. They
could potentially develop from participating in yoga as one
of many activities on a vacation trip, to travelling for yoga as
the primary trip purpose. Borrowing Trauer's (2005)
conceptualization of special-interest tourism, yoga tourists
could potentially move along a yoga spectrum - a
progression from yoga as activity (casual leisure) to yoga as
purpose (serious leisure). This advancement of
specialization of interests and activities may have
implications for yoga tourism product development. The
current yoga magazines and programmes are mostly
targeting the sophisticated yoga practitioners by theming
trips with a yoga focus. For this group, the destination choices,
settings, quality of seminars and activities could be the central
concern. However, for tourists who welcome yoga as a
peripheral benefit/activity, the emphasis could be different.
Different strategies could be more effective. This is in line
with the central and peripheral routes of cognition and
persuasion theory. For instance, yoga for fun could be more
suitable to connect with the less serious yoga tourists as
33
 Yoga Tourism as a Niche Market: X. Y. Lehto, S. Brown, Y. Chen & A. M. Morrison

posited by Klein (2002) and Searle (2005). These 'doing yoga
for fun' tourists could participate in different activities and
travel in various patterns. This bears implications for yoga
tour providers in their efforts to promote yoga as a more
mainstream leisure pursuit. For instance, how is yoga being
packaged into other holistic or non-holistic activities such
as skiing, diving or dancing and what combinations of
activities and programmes would better cater to tourists with
varying levels of yoga involvement?
Conclusion and Limitations
This research study has certain limitations. Two
obvious shortfalls are the convenience sampling and small
sample size. Interpretation and inference from this research
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yoga specialization continuum- yoga as an activity versus
yoga as a purpose- because all respondents were travelling
for a yoga purpose.
This research, while exploratory in nature, delineates
the socio-demographic and motivational characteristics of
yoga tourists. While yoga tourism is gaining in momentum,
research in this topic area is in its infancy stage. Synthesizing
yoga literature, this research incorporated concepts and
constructs that have been employed to explain tourist
behaviour into the yoga tourism setting. This research
provides basic profile information about typical yoga
tourists, preferences for yoga destinations, and motivations
for taking yoga trips. This should provide practical

should be done with caution. While the sampling for this
study is fairly representative of the US yoga tourists, more
research is needed to corroborate it with yoga tourists from
other Western markets. It is hoped that future research will
build on this exploratory work and increase the rig our and
validity of research in this area. As non-yoga tourists were
not included in the survey, the research does not provide
opportunities to compare yoga tourists with non-yoga
tourists. It also does not permit further examination of the
information for tour operators and destinations that are
trying to develop niche travel markets by tapping into the
growing special-interest tourism market. They should now
be able to better assess the needs and wants of this market
niche. At a conceptual level, this research tested the
applicability of the constructs of consumer involvement and
well-being in explaining yoga tourism behaviour. In
summary, this research provides a good baseline for future
research on the yoga tourism phenomenon.

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Submitted: April 18, 2005

Accepted: September 11, 2005

Tourism Recreation Research Vol. 31, No. 1, 2006 35