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

• Seeking something new and different in a holiday experience. Customers often want
something educational or experiential, and many aspects of health and wellness
tourism also fulfills those requirements.
The Czech Health Spa Industry
There are just a few other activities that can better characterize the economic, cultural and
social development of the Czech Republic in the last decades as health spa industry. Service
development boomed in the last 20 years in the Czech Republic, and health spa industry as an
integrated part of wide service industry boomed as well. The biggest changes can be seen in
privatization and inflow of foreign investment. The role of state toward health spas has
changed indeed although it keeps still its important legislative role.
The Czech health spa industry is an integral part of the European health spa industry history
of which starts in ancient Rome and Greece. It is a matter of fact that in south Moravia the
Romans operated the first spa in the city of Carnuntum in the 3rd century A. D.
The history of Czech health spas development can be sectionalized as follows: 31
• Before 1800 – small number of spas, guests from high society only, little influence of
scientific progress, high social prestige of spa visits.
• 1800 – 1918 – dynamic development, which reached its peak before the World War
1 st , fast growth of number of visits, improvement of transport infrastructure especially
railways, positive impact of science especially medicine, physics, chemistry, changes
in structure of guest with focus on high society, spas are mostly under German
influence.
• 1918 – 1945 – health insurance companies as a new element in spa development, spas
are opening themselves to underprivileged. The further development has been
influenced by economic and political situation, post-war restoration, the economic
crises, the 2 nd World War), some of the spas get under, and new substitutes to spa are
discovered.
• 1945 – 1989 – spas are nationalized (in 1945), more spas get under, changes in
financing system (state and labor union´s influence), most of the spa guests utilize spa
treatments as a part of complex spa care, changes in incoming spa guests´ structure
(most of them came from the socialist countries), high level of spa treatments,
problems in service quality, obsolete spa infrastructure, the average length of stay is
about 25 days, the remedial function of spas are preferred prior to other.
• After 1989 – privatization, direct influence of state failed, but continued in legislation,
quality and variety of services are improved, number of commercial and foreign
guests increased.
The International Spa Association (ISPA) defines spas as places devoted to overall well-being
through a variety of professional services that encourage the renewal of mind, body and
spirit.“ 32
ISPA presumes combined utilization of ten following healing elements: 33
31 Attl. P., Nejdl, K.: Turizmus I. VSH, Praha 2005, ISBN 80-86578-37-2, p. 75