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

In the same period, 9 termas merely offered basic information posted on the website of an
umbrella institution (the Carvalhelhos spa on the website of the bottled water firm of the same
name; those of Entre-os-Rios and Manteigas are to be found on INATEL’s website; Almeida,
Vale da Mó, Sangemil, Cró and Cabeço de Vide on the website of the municipality that owns
them; and Caldas da Rainha on the Ministry of Health’s website). With the exception of
Cabeço da Vide, the termas with over 2.000 medical spa goers per year (corresponding to 1/3
of the termas with a website link) have their own appealing websites, whereas of the 15
smaller spas (receiving less than 1.000 visitors in 2008), 4 have no website at all and 4 only
furnish the most basic details through an umbrella website. The internet presence of termas
open to the public and with accommodation is 100% and 85% of those without integrated
accommodation.
In order to find out how the termas use the internet to sell their services, it was decided to
focus on those that had created their own web page (excluding those with information inserted
on an umbrella site) and that had been functioning in 2009 and 2010. This universe of spa
units (i) was representative of the regional distribution of spas, (ii) included both private and
public initiatives, (iii) took in both well-visited and less-visited businesses and (iv)
incorporated both spas functioning without accommodation (balneários) and mineral springs
spa hotels. As there were only 2 eligible sites in the South of Portugal, the sample taken from
this universe was adjusted so as to include 7 sites in the Centre of the country and 6 in the
North, respecting the 14% - 45% - 41% spatial distribution ratio referred to above, as can be
verified in Table 2 below.