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

• N - Postoperative and posttraumatic conditions and convalescence.
Spa care has been traditionally perceived as a part of health and social care system and one of
the 3 pillars of medical treatment in the Czech Republic (besides hospital care and ambulatory
care). The Czech health spa care system consists of:
• Sequential professional spa care;
• Professional spa care for chronic patients;
• Professional ambulatory spa care;
• Professional preventive spa care.
From the point of view of tourism, one of the most important characteristics of health spa care
system is reimbursement of costs. There are four different approaches applied in the Czech
Republic:
• Complex spa care - fully covered by health insurance companies (excluded travel
costs);
• Allowance spa care - medical treatments costs are partly covered by health insurance
companies, catering and accommodation is covered by guests;
• Commercial spa care – all costs are fully covered by guests;
• Ambulatory spa care – guests are staying at their homes and are regularly visiting spa
treatments without utilizing catering and accommodation services. 37
The fundamental economic unit of output in health spa is a nursing day with following
components:
• Investigation and treatment
• Accommodation
• Catering
• Cultural, sport and supplemental activity. 38
The health spa industry is perceived as an important branch of economic activities with long
history. It is a part of the traditional and successful economic activities with positive social,
health, economic, ecological and regional effects.
UNWTO stated spa care as one of the basic motivators in tourism, as it is defined as „the
activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outsider their usual environment for not
more than one consecutive year for lemure, business and other purposes” 39 , but there is still a
discussion among a number of medical doctors and tourism stakeholders in the Czech
Republic on relation and/or interconnection of tourism and health spa.
37 In 2008, as in the preceding years, the predominant part of health expenditure was financed by the system of
public health insurance that covered 76.4 % of the expenditure in the Czech Republic. The State and territorial
budgets covered 7.0 % of the total and private expenditure covered 16.6 %. The relative proportions of these
components remained roughly the same in recent years faster increase is only registered in private expenditure
consisting mainly of expenses of households. Total expenditure on health increased from 2007 by 20 710
mill.CZK and in 2008 their absolute value was 262.645 mill. CZK (i.e. 25.182 CZK per inhabitant). This total
expenditure on health represents 7.12 % of the GDP in 2008. Public expenditure, i.e., that of the public budgets
and of the public heath insurance system, was 219.119 mill. CZK, by 12.554 mill. CZK more than in the
preceding year. The average expenditure of the public health insurance system per 1 client was 19.353 CZK. In:
Czech Health Statistics. ÚZIS ČR 2009. ISSN 1210-9991, ISBN 978-80-7280-845-8
38 This indicator can be used only when the health spa guest employ all above mentioned services.
39 WTO Ottawa Conference on Travel and Tourism Statistsics, 1991. In: Collection of Tourism Expenditure
Statistics. Technical Manual No. 2. WTO, 1995 p. 1, ISBN 978-92-844-0106-2