My new blog entry at the Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group of the American Anthropological Association:
WELLNESS AND SPIRITUAL TOURISM AFTER COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has raised public awareness of the many dimensions of wellness. Following the World Health Organization, wellness may be understood as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Wellness may also be understood as an orientation toward optimising one’s health and well-being, in which body, mind and spirit are integrated in a holistic way, so as to live more fully within the human and natural community. COVID-19 has had a deleterious effect on all of these aspects of wellness. There are reports of the adverse economic impacts on people’s lives, greater stress due to lockdowns and restrictions, and impacts on those who lost friends and family to the virus. There are also ongoing and long-lasting consequences of contracting and recovering from the virus itself.
