Health and spa tourism: An overview Definition and markets While spa tourism is a part of health tourism, to this day there is no consensus among scientists and experts regarding the notion ofhealth tourism. When speakingoftravel based on some form of health. related activities, the following terms are mostly used and often interchangeably health tourism, medical tourism, wellness tourism and medical tourism. Some researchers view these terms as notions of independent tourist segments (Hume & DeMicco, 2007; Carrera & Bridges, 2006, sobo 2009) (2011, p. 98) that there are clearly defined differences between the medical (hospital i clinical and health tourism. He that medical tourism is based on non-leisure motives get ting medical treatment for which appropriate medical facilities (hospital, dinics, health professional equipment need to be available. He includes treatment in sanatoriums in medical tourism too. In contrast, health tourism is mostly based on leisure-related motives of rest and relaxation (maintenance and improvements of health) for which specific accommodation facilities, natural healing remedies, medical supervision and conditions for implementing health programs, complemented by a range of auxiliary services need to be offered in a health resorts and/or tourism destination.