E-ISSN 2281-4612 ISSN 2281-3993 Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies www.richtmann.org Vol 11 No 6 November 2022 8 . Research Article © 2022 Zafeiroudi et al. This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) Received: 30 August 2022 / Accepted: 13 October 2022 / Published: 5 November 2022 Yoga as Serious Leisure Activity: Socio-Demographic Differences in Mindfulness Levels Among Yoga Retreat Participants Aglaia Zafeiroudi 1 Georgia Yfantidou 2 Charilaos Kouthouris 1 Aikaterini Zanna 2 ¹Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Greece 2 Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece DOI: https://doi.org/10.36941/ajis-2022-0144 Abstract Yoga retreats are an emerging component of international well-being tourism. This form of tourism focuses on groups with specific demographic characteristics and interests, highlights natural destinations of high tourism value, and supports the development of personal well-being through such practices as mindfulness. This study investigated the demographic characteristics of 203 Greek yoga retreat tourists in relation to their mindfulness levels. The study also investigated the effect of different yoga practices in asana, meditation, and philosophy courses on the formation of mindfulness. The 'Mindful Attention Awareness' scale (Mantzios, Wilson & Giannou, 2015), consisting of 15 items, was used to evaluate mindfulness and psychographics were successfully tested. The results show statistically significant differences in mindfulness between subgroups of participants of different marital status, financial profile, age, and number of years practicing yoga meditation and philosophy. The study concludes that yoga is a serious leisure activity with high personal and work life involvement. The findings enrich data regarding yoga retreats in Greece and establish the profile of yoga retreat participants according to mindfulness, asana, meditation, and philosophical practice participation. Tourism providers can give prominence to the concept of mindfulness as a dominant theme in the wellness tourism industry and, as a consequence, develop and improve the quality of yoga retreat services. Keywords: wellbeing, recreation, wellness tourism, physical exercise, psychosomatic health, spirituality, yoga philosophy, meditation 1. Introduction Modern Western high anxiety and high stress lifestyles, together with reactions against the excesses of materialism, have undoubtedly helped to accelerate the popularity of yoga, which is both a physical activity and a tool to enhance general well-being (Bowers, & Cheer, 2017). Yoga practice is