“Salus per loca amoena”: An analysis of rural landscape for health and wellness tourism

The phenomenon of Health & Wellness (H&W) tourism requires the presence of dedicated infrastructures. The main objective of this study is to analyse rural landscape as a strategic resource useful in the development of a type of H&W tourism that is not connected to the presence of dedicated infrastructures. For the purposes of this study we introduce the concept of "salus per loca amoena" indicating a range of experiences/holidays based on the medical and therapeutic use of rural landscape. This type of health and wellness tourism is ecologically sustainable, lasts between 1 and 30 nights, is able to produce both psychological and physical recoveries verified through scientific literature, and acts as a defensible competitive advantage for the destination. In this paper a review of biomedical literature on the relationship between landscape and health is conducted through the theoretical lens of the resource-based view (R-BV) of the firm. By doing so, it was possible to identify the characteristics that allow a resource such as rural landscape to evolve and become a source of sustained competitive advantage.