Innovations in well-being tourism in the Nordic countries

Innovation in tourism is an emerging research theme, and there is a growing understanding of the frameworks for and circumstances involving innovative activities in the sector. However, there is also a need to uncover the particularities of innovations in its sub-sectors. Based on case studies in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, this article investigates categories of product innovation in wellbeing tourism that ensure modernisation and quality improvement, aligning these with developments in the still more sophisticated tourism market. The article then outlines diversifications that expand the conception of well-being. In the Nordic countries, such diversifications comprise festivals and events, season-enhancing products and products for new target groups, for example, children. Third, the importance of technology supplies for the innovation of the well-being product is demonstrated. Integrating mobile devices and interactive media is of interest to Nordic operators, although the speed of development and implementation is hampered by a range of structural and institutional barriers. A fourth category of product innovations, institutional innovations, is then discussed, comprising collaborative structures that ensure new resource constellations. In Nordic well-being tourism, commercial success in the future calls for entrepreneurial muscle and public-private sector partnerships in capacity conjunction.