Health, Wellness and Tourism: healthy tourists, healthy business ...

Monção are run by the local municipality. Of the balneários (spas without residential
facilities), one-third have private owners and two-thirds are in public hands.
Today’s typical spa goer
In this section, in order to concentrate on “new” spa goers, “traditional” spa-goers (by which
is meant elderly persons with medical conditions that require curative treatments, with very
limited purchasing power, and with low expectations as to the quality of spa and lodging
facilities that function only during the warmer months of the year) have been disregarded
(Medeiros & Cavaco, 2008). Nowadays not only the mineral springs spas, but all the other
types of spas want to widen their clientele and for this reason increasingly use websites as a
means of attracting new clients to this niche market. Gustavo (Gustavo, 2009), drawing on his
ongoing doctoral research, argues that spas occupy a privileged market position not only
because they are associated with the principles of both health and well being, but also – and
probably mainly – because they are able to reinvent themselves in line with a global and
hybrid philosophy that mirrors the world in which we currently live.
In order to discover clients’ motivations, the kind of services they prefer during a spa
visit/stay and their daily health care practices at home, Gustavo collected responses from 824
clients during May to August 2009 in 21 “classic” and “new” hydrotherapeutic leisure spaces.
His results led him to conclude that the typical spa-goer today is predominantly female (70%),
in their thirties (average age 39, with 40% of the sample between 30 and 39), has a degree
(74%), with those in a stable conjugal relation being equal in number to single persons (24%
and 25% respectively), many without children, living in an urban area (72%), in Portugal
(73%); the vast majority (92%) are in employment, predominantly in high level managerial or
technical capacities, 89% of the employed having jobs in the service sector. In almost half of
the cases, the family net income exceeds 3.000€ per month i.e. more than six times the 2009
Portuguese guaranteed minimum income of 450€/month. These clients are most likely to visit
a spa facility during the week (45%) or to integrate it into a (short) holiday break (41%).
Those interviewed by Gustavo regularly visit spas (31% of them once a month) in order to
relieve stress or to relax (74%) and/or to upgrade mental and physical health (50%). Massage
and body treatments are the spa services with most demand. Notwithstanding the dominant
historical and cultural influence of the classical termas, nearly 50% of the clients said they
had not undergone hydrotherapeutic treatments during their last spa visit.
The same survey also revealed that future clients consider the quality of treatment, the quality
of customer service, hygiene and cleanliness, the cost of services and the location of the spa
as the most relevant factors influencing their decisions to visit or revisit particular sites.
Another important conclusion to draw is that spa clients are essentially healthy people: 87%
of those surveyed consider their routines as healthy, stressing the importance of food (89%)
and physical exercise (83%) and their personal attitude in favour of a healthy lifestyle tout
court (54%). 42% only consume alcohol at the weekends or on special occasions, while 69%
are non smokers. They undergo annual medical check-ups every year on their own initiative.
70% of the sample has a normal or below average Body Mass Index. For marketing purposes,
finally, it is relevant to bear in mind that 14% of those answering the questionnaire were in
the spa at the time as a result of having received a gift voucher.
Portuguese spa managers may also find the annual SpaFinder forecasts a source of inspiration
in defining their marketing strategies: these reports are compiled by “a team of experts who
visit thousands of spas”, interview top industry analysts and research organizations, and do