Travel and Healthcare: Intersection of Travel, Healthcare and Wellbeing

Call for Papers

Travel and Healthcare: Intersection of Travel, Healthcare and Wellbeing

JOURNAL NAME: Tourism Review

PUBLISHER: Emerald Publishing

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 14 August 2026

EXPECTED PUBLICATION: 2027

About This Themed Issue

In a world characterized by increasing human mobility, the intersection of travel and healthcare has emerged as a critical area of inquiry. People travel for many reasons — medical treatment, wellness enhancement, business obligations, and leisure — all of which carry implications for individual and collective well-being. This evolving landscape challenges traditional boundaries between healthcare systems, hospitality practices, and public health governance.

Research has shown that travel experiences are closely tied to physical, psychological, and social well-being. At the same time, the adverse health implications of travel have become increasingly recognized — including physiological and psychological strains faced by international business travelers such as sleep disruption, stress, and exposure to differing health risks. Growing attention has also been directed toward population-specific travel experiences, particularly among older adults and neurodiverse individuals, underscoring the need for inclusive design and accessible travel environments.

Together, these perspectives reveal that the health and well-being of travelers cannot be disentangled from the physical environments, social systems, and sociodemographic characteristics that support travel. As global travel continues to expand and societies grapple with new health crises, aging populations, and shifting patterns of work and leisure, there is a pressing need for interdisciplinary collaboration to reimagine what it means to travel well and to care well.

This themed issue seeks interdisciplinary research that explores the complex relationships between travel, healthcare, aging and disability, and well-being. Contributions integrating theory, empirical analysis, and practice from disciplines including tourism studies, healthcare, sociology, psychology, geography, anthropology, design, and policy studies are especially welcome.

Scope & Theme Areas

We invite submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Well-being and Mental Health — How travel environments, cultural adaptation, and place attachment affect psychological well-being among travelers and host communities, including stress, resilience, loneliness, and the restorative or therapeutic potential of travel experiences

• Aging and Chronic Conditions — Healthcare access and care continuity while traveling, the role of travel in active aging, rehabilitation, and long-term disease management, and design and policy interventions for older or chronically ill travelers

• Travel Accessibility and Inclusion — Inclusive design, equitable healthcare access for travelers with disabilities, and systemic barriers faced by marginalized groups

• Neurodiversity and Cognitive Disability — Sensory-friendly environments, staff training in hospitality and healthcare settings, and co-designed approaches to improving travel and care experiences of neurodiverse populations

• Travel Safety and Infectious Disease — Health risk management, disease prevention strategies, and collaborative public health systems that support safe and sustainable travel

Themed Issue Curators

YunYing (Susan) Zhong University of Central Florida, USA ✉️ yunying.zhong@ucf.edu

Alan Fyall University of Central Florida, USA ✉️ alan.fyall@ucf.edu

Dimitrios Buhalis Bournemouth University, United Kingdom ✉️ dbuhalis@bournemouth.ac.uk

Daisy Xuefeng Fan Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong ✉️ daisyxf.fan@polyu.edu.hk

Key Deadlines & Dates

Submission Guidelines

How to submit: Manuscripts must be submitted via the journal's online submission portal, strictly following the journal's author guidelines.

Selection step: Authors must select the themed issue title from the drop-down menu at the appropriate submission step — in response to "Please select the issue you are submitting to."

Eligibility: Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication elsewhere while under review for this journal.

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