Rehabilitation tourism enhances psychosocial health of cancer survivors in Hainan, China

Background: Cancer survivors commonly experience considerable psychosocial burden, including anxiety, depression and low quality of life. Rehabilitation tourism—wellness, recovery travel—has been introduced as an intervention to enhance cancer survivorship with growing importance, although little research exists on how rehabilitation tourism can improve psychosocial health of cancer survivors. Methods: This paper was a mixed-method research employing narrative systematic review and semi-structured interviews to explore the effects of rehabilitation tourism on the psychosocial well-being of cancer survivors. A total of 20 survivors of breast, lung, colorectal, lymphoma and uterine cancers (n = 20) undergoing rehabilitation tourism programs in the Hainan Free Trade Port of China were interviewed. Hainan’s distinctive natural recuperation environment and pro-political policy background makes it a perfect place for considering these impacts. Conclusion: The literature review indicates that rehabilitation tourism substantially relieves anxiety and depression and enhances cancer survivors’ quality of life. And the data from qualitive interviews also indicate that being immersed in nature, making strong peer and caregiver social support and learning mindfulness-based activities on the trip could assist cancer survivors making emotional adjustment, fostering social connection and recreating sense of life meaning. They indicated a significant decrease of distress and improvements in positive expectancies and adaptation skills after tourism. Results: The literature review indicated that rehabilitation (wellness) tourism can substantially relieve anxiety and depression and enhance cancer survivors’ quality of life. Likewise, our qualitative interviews found that being immersed in nature, receiving strong peer and caregiver social support, and engaging in mindfulness-based activities during the trip helped survivors with emotional adjustment, fostered social connection, and restored a sense of life meaning. Participants overwhelmingly reported decreased distress and improved positive expectations and adaptive coping skills following the tourism experience. Conclusion: Rehabilitation wellness tourism shows promise as a novel psychosocial oncology intervention. Our findings highlight the therapeutic value of natural healing environments and supportive policy initiatives (such as those in Hainan’s Free Trade Port) in maximizing psychosocial outcomes for cancer survivors. This work offers preliminary insights into how structured wellness tourism can facilitate emotional healing and restore social functioning in cancer survivors. We recommend further research to evaluate its long-term effects and broader applicability in psycho-oncology.