Training Happiness Creators: A Strategic Model for Well-being Tourism Workforce Development

Abstract The global tourism industry is witnessing a rapid rise in demand for well-being, mindfulness, and retreat-based experiences, prompting a fundamental rethinking of tourism workforce development. This study argues that emerging forms of well-being tourism require a new category of tourism professionals, happiness creators, who move beyond functional service delivery to actively facilitate tourists’ hedonic and, more importantly, eudaimonic well-being. Adopting an exploratory qualitative research design, the study integrates a literature review with semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with tourists and retreat tourism businesses in Vietnam. The literature review synthesizes conceptual foundations from happiness-in-tourism frameworks, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, emotional intelligence theory, and mindfulness-based practices. Empirical interview data provide context-specific insights into tourists’ expectations and businesses’ workforce challenges. Based on the analytical integration of theory and empirical findings, the study proposes a three-axis competency model for training happiness creators, encompassing professional competencies, emotional and relational intelligence, and sustained inner development. International practices from Bhutan, Thailand, Japan, and New Zealand further demonstrate that investing in human presence and inner capacity, rather than infrastructure alone, is central to delivering high-value well-being tourism experiences. The findings reveal a strong and growing demand for emotionally and spiritually capable companions, alongside a structural shortage of adequately trained personnel. The study offers concrete implications for tourism education by recommending experiential, transformative, and mindfulness-based training structures; for businesses by outlining partnership-based training models; and for policymakers by highlighting the need for new occupational standards in well-being tourism.