Eastern Finland is an area that is rich in lakes, aquatic environments and pure nature. Unfortunately, this rich potential is scarcely utilized in well-being and wellness tourism product development. To answer this, the purpose of this article is to discuss if the experiential environment of the lakes and lake landscape can act as a potential resource for the core content of a ‘Lake Wellness’ experience product. This article introduces the well-being and wellness concepts in general, and further defines the Lake Wellness concept in a Finnish context. The main aim of the article is to present the product content and design of a new Lake Wellness experience.

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Purpose The purpose of the paper is to study how the local stakeholders of three different tourism destinations consider who is responsible for the development of a tourism destination (if identifiable) and why. Design/methodology/approach This study takes a multiple case study approach. Three different destinations are compared. A qualitative research method was chosen. The data are based on the interviews of tourism and wellbeing professionals (tourism entrepreneurs, experts and regional developers). Findings The interview results suggest that destination leadership seems to be context-dependent. Competition, co-operation and coopetition all occur in different forms in different regions. Various kinds of co-operation are distinguishable between stakeholders of case regions, and the level of leadership among actors varies in the regions; one region is strongly managed by marketing company, while on other the co-operative store chain is apparently dominant. The roles of local educational institutes also varied depending on the case area. In addition, some entry barriers were identified. Research limitations/implications The data were collected three to four years ago, so some changes in the areas and in the roles and relationships of diverse stakeholders may have occurred. Practical implications By identifying challenges faced in diverse regions diverse destination managers can identify challenges likely to occur at destinations with similar management structures. Originality/value The paper discusses the challenges and roles of diverse stakeholders in destination management by using empirical cases.