Developing a wellness destination: a case study of the Peak District

This chapter explores the opportunity and strength of a destination management approach to identifying resources, stakeholders, consumers and the willingness to promote the concept and practices of wellness tourism in a destination case study. The case study is a destination familiar to over 50 per cent of the UK’s resident population – the Peak District of the North Midlands. Our case study demonstrates the importance of a structure to the destination development model. We identify several key issues to ensure the successful outcome for the key stakeholders and the basis for ongoing developments in wellness and tourism. We consider and recommend that public-sector governance and partnership arrangements in management of operations, research and development, knowledge transfer and repository thereof, are critical and central to this success. The fundamentals are reinforced through clear brand identity and marketing built upon this from core values and beliefs to drive the community’s aim and objectives in achieving success through wellness.