doi.org/10.52340/eab.2024.16.04.06

During the last decade, among the types of tourism in the world, as well as in Georgia, the interest in wellness tourism, which consists of such important procedural components as spa, meditation, healing therapies, sports and healing activities, has increased in particular. Therefore, it is not surprising that public interest in researching these issues has increased.
The aim of the paper is to highlight the global scale of wellness tourism in the world and the statistical trends of its development in Georgia and the relevant analysis.
Methodology. In the research process, the methods of statistical observation, gathering-grouping and analysis, modern Georgian and foreign literature related to the research problem, materials of international peer-reviewed journals, the results of our research, etc. were used, sources.
Results. Worldwide, wellness tourism is characterized by a growing trend. The pace of its development in Georgia is not very high, although it has the potential to do so. This was confirmed by the results of our research.
Wellness tourism is growing rapidly worldwide, and the volume of tourism expenses in this direction is also increasing. However, according to the countries of the world, quantitative indicators of interest in wellness tourism and the ratio of domestic and international wellness tourism are differentiated. There is potential for the development of wellness tourism in Georgia. In addition to Central Asia and the European Union, interest in wellness tourism is growing from neighboring countries as well. Incomes of the population are directly correlated with the number of wellness tourism visits, so it is necessary to improve the information provision of the population. At the same time, we think it is necessary to determine the possibilities of increasing the promotion of tourist visits for the purpose of disease prevention, prophylactic and healing, and to develop the right targeted policy in this direction. Regionally, the indicators of receiving medical services and statistics of morbidity are increasing, the volume of expenses incurred during medical and health tourism is increasing, but against the background of growing local tourism, the total number of visitors is decreasing, and the indicators of the number of visits for the purpose of health are decreasing.
We think it is necessary to intensively depict wellness resorts in the promotional materials of the National Tourism Administration of Georgia, it will be video clips, brochures, etc. It will be appropriate to hold thematic meetings both online and within the framework of international exhibitions with interested tour operators, holding press and information tours in Georgia will be of great importance for the development of wellness tourism. This will allow guests to get to know the priorities of wellness tourism and make it available to the rest of the world that disease prevention, rehabilitation, health improvement, etc. can also be done in Georgia. This is especially important for international tourism, because the ratio between domestic and international wellness tourists in Georgia since 2015 confirms the unconditional superiority of domestic tourism.
The research conducted to assess the expectations of the development of domestic wellness tourism showed that residents of Georgia prefer short-term wellness tourism. For more than half of the respondents, 58.3% found a hotel and a relative's apartment acceptable for 25%. A high degree of diversification was evident in wellness tourism spending, as the percentages of spending intervals were equal, indicating different amounts of spending.
The main factor for the development of wellness tourism is the presence of budgetary means of accommodation by the resident respondents of Georgia. A large part believes that low prices of services and their compliance with international standards are important, and most of them, 85%, point out that there should be budget tour products.
In order to increase the attractiveness of wellness tourism, according to 68% of the respondents, it is necessary to increase the awareness of the population, in addition, it is necessary to hold thematic meetings, promotions of packages with preferentialprices for residents of Georgia, distribution of information booklets, etc.

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Keywords: Wellness tourism, tourism costs, awareness of the population, statistical analysis.
JEL Codes: L80, L83, L89