Abstract
Background
Wellness tourism has emerged as a rapidly growing segment of the global tourism industry, yet its development in Central Asian heritage regions remains constrained by service fragmentation, limited digital infrastructure, and the absence of standardized assessment frameworks. The Bukhara region of Uzbekistan, endowed with thermal springs, therapeutic hot sands, and mineral-rich mud deposits, exemplifies this tension between exceptional wellness potential and underdeveloped sector coordination.
Methods
We developed the EWI framework through a three-round Delphi process (
N
= 15 experts), yielding nine weighted criteria operationalized via 25 measurable indicators. The framework was applied to 12 wellness-oriented facilities through on-site field surveys conducted in 2023–2024. Panel data for the 2021–2024 period were analyzed using weighted least squares regression, and facility segmentation was performed using k-means clustering in IBM SPSS Statistics v26.
Results
The assessment revealed three distinct facility clusters: International/Large Wellness Hotels, excelling in infrastructure and accessibility; Traditional Therapeutic Centers, demonstrating exceptional indigenous healing expertise and effective use of natural resources; and Hybrid Emerging Facilities, showing balanced but moderate performance. Econometric analysis identified customer base expansion and qualified staffing as the strongest positive determinants of revenue.
Conclusions
The findings support a cluster-specific approach to developing wellness tourism in heritage regions. We propose the Wellness Bukhara Voucher System—a digitally integrated platform with a three-phase implementation roadmap.