WelDest travels featured by Nordic Wellness Travel - have a look!

Sanna travels to Berlin and Bad Saarow

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.

WelDest at the 2013 IHM Conference on Hospitality, Tourism and Education

The WelDest project was in the spotlight in two separate presentations last week at the annual conference on Hospitality, Tourism and Education at the Institute of Hospitality Management. Lucie Plzakova and Donna Dvorak spoke in the plenary session about the preliminary research results that had just been shared with the entire project team in their recent meeting in Brussels. Vera Fiserova also presented information on the project during the afternoon section on Tourism.



Those at the conference were introduced to the data collected from consumers and stakeholders in research that spanned five countries. Lucie Plzakova pointed out some interesting findings and emphasized the differences in garnering support and cooperation in the different countries. She also outlined the plan for the next half of the project,how it will progress and the research results will be used in the creation of the e-handbook and self-assessment tool for Health a Well-being tourism destinations.

The response after the presentations was extremely positive, with many individuals working in the field showing their interest and offering their future assistance in the project.



photos: Kristýna Brožková

Did you apply...?

... maybe you or your hotel / spa applied for the EUROPEAN HEALTH & SPA AWARD, then you have chances to win prizes about 30.000 EURO.

Interested in, what we are talking about? Have a look here and watch the video.

The Austrian WelDest team is proud to be part of the jury of the Award. Dr. Eva Adamer-König and Prof. Dr. Kai Illing are members of the jury team. At the moment they are testing facilities in and outside of Austria but they are also judging many many pages of application papers.

The results you can see at the SPA EVENT 2013 from 12th to 13th Nov. 2013 in Vienna. Further information to that event, you will find here. The Spa Event is one of the biggest Spa Industry related events in German speaking countries.

You can also find some information about the Spa Event 2013 and the EUROPEAN HEALTH & SPA AWARD on Facebook.

May be the next winners? 

Great Spas of Europe

Karlovy Vary (also Karlsbad or Carlsbad) in the Czech Republic, one of the most well-known spa towns in the world, is leading the way as the project coordinator in a bid to be recognized by UNESCO along with other spa towns from France, Germany, Austria and Italy. The nominations will be submitted in 2015 for World Heritage status for the trans-national  „Great Spas of Europe“ group.

Karlovy Vary

Four spas towns in the Czech Republic are involved in the project group. Three of the towns – Karlovy Vary, Františkovy Lázně and Mariánské Lázně –  lie relatively close together and make up what is known as the West Bohemian Spa Triangle. The fourth spa town is Luhačovice in East Moravia, which is currently cooperating with the WelDest project team in their research on Health and Well-being destinations. In 2008 the West Bohemiam Spa Triangle submitted their own application to be recognized as a World Heritage site, but was placed on a tentative list with UNESCO as they requested further studies to look at other spas.

It remains to be seen whether the bid will be accepted, but throughout this complex process the Great Spas of Europe group continues to work toward ensuring that each of the project members fulfill the criteria necessary to be granted World Heritage status and determining the details of the management plan should they be accepted. 

German Leaflets are printed

We are proud the present the printed versions of the leaflet in German language.

For downloading the leaflets in the partner langueages have a look to Media & Publications.

Management of Destinations

Paul Bamber, Expert in Destination Marketing from University College Birmingham presents models of destination competitiveness.

2nd WelDest Meeting in Lazne Luhacovice

After a warm welcome from our project member Donna Dvorak we startet the second meeting. At the moment we are dealing with tasks of Dissemination activities.

Great intercultural discussions!

Project leader Susanna Saari is opening the meeting and we are discussing Project Management issues.

WelDest at Prezi

Right here! (also as a link)