From School Stress to Transformative Experience: Kaohsiung Urban Healing as a Model for Student-Centered Tourism

Summary University students increasingly report anxiety and stress, yet institutional responses often remain clinical and disconnected from everyday environments. This case study asks whether a short, low-cost tourism itinerary can be designed and evaluated as a student well-being product. It presents the Kaohsiung Urban Healing Program, a pilot wellness tourism itinerary that combines a nature-and-mindfulness day, a heritage-site-and-Indigenous-community day, and a further Indigenous-community day in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, using a four-step facilitation sequence (Grounding, Experience, Meditate, Share). Using a qualitative case study design, the study triangulates program documents, official sources, and pilot feedback from seven graduate students, collected through a survey combining rating items and open-ended reflection. Findings show that guided outdoor meditation, a heritage-park history talk, and direct conversation with Indigenous community members produced shifts in stress regulation and relational connection. Pilot ratings were consistently high (4.14–4.86/5), offering universities a replicable model linking well-being and ethical community-based tourism.