The Global Spa & Wellness Summit (GSWS) has announced that a dedicated Global Wellness Tourism Congress will be held in conjunction with the Summit, which takes place in New Delhi, India during 5-7 October 2013.

The one-day event will bring together ministers of tourism and other wellness tourism professionals to shape the best strategies to promote and grow the fast-emerging travel category.

The gathering will be invite-only and will be held as a 'think-tank-like' forum devoted to jumpstarting further growth in wellness tourism.

Leaders directly responsible for promoting wellness tourism in their region will discuss, and ultimately forge, a set of industry recommendations on how to best grow consumer participation, and how individual regions and nations can drive the most media attention at the least cost.

According to GSWS, wellness tourism is of particular importance to spas, which are often destinations for wellness tourists.

Taking place on Saturday, October 5, 2013 (the first day of the GSWS), the Congress' full-day agenda will include the presentation of case studies illustrating successful national wellness tourism campaigns - along with critical findings from a new SRI International research report.

The SRI report is one of the firsts to analyze the scope of, and predicted future growth for, the global wellness tourism sector.

Ophelia Yeung, co director, of SRI International's Center for Science, Technology and Economic Development, said: "Within the estimated US$2 trillion (1.53tn, £1.34tn) global tourism economy, wellness tourism is a market that has explosive growth potential, given the demographic, economic and lifestyle trends in both high-income and rapidly developing countries."

To find out more about GSWS and the first Wellness Tourism Congress, visit the GSWS website by clicking here.