Forum and Market for Balneary Tourism - Baile Felix in Romania

Tourism industry representatives as well as those focusing specifically on balneary tourism, spas & wellness gave a very warm welcome to Donna Dvorak at the 10th annual Forum and Market for Balneary Tourism in Baile Felix in Romania this past week.  

Ms. Dvorak described the WelDest project and presented both the e-handbook and self-assessment tool, explaining how they can be used for health and well-being tourism destination development. 

The event, organized under the patronage of the Romanian National Tourism Authority attracted the most important associations from Romania and various other countries around Europe, including Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic and was divided into two main parts: the forum and the market.

During the forum, participants from balneary companies, public administration, travel agencies, as well as industry specialists heard discussions and presentations on such topics as the need for modern management in spas, the marketing of Ana Aslan therapies in spa hotels in Romania, the challenges and solutions posed by cluster networks and the integration of wellness activities into spa programs.

During the market, participants were invited to browse the different booths representing hotels, spas, travel agencies and associations who were eager to provide promotional material on their organizations as well as information on new technologies and products in the field.

The event was led by ESPA Vice-president from Romania, Mr. Nicu Radulescu, who did not hesitate to challenge the participants to move forward with the trends in the industry and embrace the ideas and concepts being brought forward by younger entrepreneurs and innovators in the field.

The event was a resounding success and WelDest was honored to be invited and to share the research and outputs of the project. We are looking forward to more cooperation with those in the Romanian tourism industry!

WelDest team meets ESPA representatives in Brussels

A meeting between the WelDest project team and representatives of the European Spas Association took place recently in Brussels. A pleasant and lively discussion resulted in an outline of future cooperation beneficial for both parties.

The European Spa Association (ESPA) is a non-profit and non-governmental umbrella association of national associations and members from 20 European countries. ESPA’s main task is to represent the interests of its members at the European level. In addition to lobbying, it also supports its members by providing complex services including marketing activities, supporting R&D in the industry, and certifying the quality of health and spa resorts and wellness facilities across Europe with EuropeSpa med and EuropeSpa wellness quality seals.

During the meeting different aspects of cooperation were discussed. The fact that not all the WelDest partner countries are ESPA members represented an additional advantage for mutual promotion. A lack of qualified management was defined as one of the major problems of the industry and it was concluded that joint efforts could contribute to continuing professional development in the field. Further possible collaboration at the world's largest tourism trade fair, ITB Berlin, was mentioned as well. Both sides also considered cooperation in the framework of upcoming events such as the Annual ESPA Congress and the WelDest end seminar in Finland in 2014.

Promoting the health and well-being concept and encouraging the exchange of experience, best practices and know-how are just a few of the many intersecting aims and interests of ESPA and WelDest. We would like to thank ESPA for welcoming the WelDest project group at their office and believe that the meeting was just the beginning of fruitful and productive cooperation.

Quality Seals in the Health and Well-being Tourism Industry

Professor Kai Illing, FH Joanneum

The health and well-being tourism industry came into being in the 1990's. The Central European countries showed tremendous increases in demand and supply. Thermal spring spas, hotel spas, medical spas, and other types of spas were being built, and people decided to take wellness holidays. This kind of privately-paid pampering, relaxing, and sometimes health promoting leisure time did not develop at the same pace in all European countries. Some East European countries stuck to their more medical spa tradition based on natural remedies, with the treatments being at least partly paid by health insurance.

Booming markets often react in the same way: Some new suppliers imitate successful services, offering them at a bad cost-performance ratio. The quality erodes, clients get upset, and those who are the defenders of a best quality approach try to install instruments which help push back the late comers. Instruments of that kind include, for example, quality seals which can be obtained from various companies. If a certain set of criteria is fulfilled, a certificate is given to them.

One of the best-known quality seals comes from the European Spa Association ESPA http://europespa.eu (Quality standard for medical spas and medical wellness providers in Europe). It comprises about 1000 ambitious quality criteria which together focus on companies dealing with natural remedies. The quality seal can be obtained throughout Europe. The certification can be granted to individual companies such as medical spas, thermal baths, and other therapy centers. 

The health and well-being tourism industry in Central Europe has created a large number of quality seals; therefore hotels that want to have a quality seal have to bear in mind that very different quality seals can be obtained, some with less or more challenging criteria. Some focus on health and others on pampering, while some quality seals are only for hotels and others for clinics.

What about destinations?

Picture: ESPA

Many countries and their tourist destinations do not really specialize in certain themes such as culture, nature, or health and well-being. Health and well-being as a developing strategy on a destination level is quite new, the market is not yet driven by tough competition, and consequently not characterized by quality seals and others instruments needed in hard fought markets. Compared to other countries, Austria tried quite early to open the market up for destinations specializing in health and well-being. The "Austria well-being destination of Europe” initiative, funded by the government, started around ten years ago and showed early insight into the fact that health and well-being might be an issue for destinations too. Since then, some destinations have tried quite successfully to develop their services. Quality seals, with respect to health and well-being destinations, are not yet very common, as the market has developed slowly in comparison to the hotel wellness and spa market.

Prof. Dr. Kai T. Illing