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

The above mentioned conditions are defined by the German Health Spa Association as
follows:
• The wellness facility is managed by a medical doctor;
• The medical doctor is at the disposal of the guests;
• The staff is qualified;
• Integrated concept;
• Stability of offer;
• High quality of equipment;
• Documented quality management. 48
Some experts define “wellness tourism” as a “the sum of all the relationships and phenomena
resulting from a journey and residence by people whose main motive is to preserve or
promote their health.” 49
Wellness tourism activities prevent illness and preserve, promote or enhance overall health
and well being of people and their desire to prevent problems so they stay well, both
physically and mentally.
Based on the above remarks, it can be stated that health spa and wellness are two different
products although there is a lot of overlap between them, especially in terms of their markets
and in terms of the range of services offered.
Tourists who are generally healthy are motivated to travel so that they can experience
therapies and activities that will promote, enhance, and otherwise maintain a sense of well
being. Tourists with various medical conditions are motivated to travel so that they can
experience therapies that will help to make them well or to improve their health.
To be able to consider complementary or competitive relation between health spa and
wellness in the Czech Republic, a field study took place in November 2009. The field study
comprised a survey consisting of in-depth face-to-face interviews of 25 health spa and
wellness managers and other stakeholders including 50 guests. The management has been
contacted individually. Interviewees were contacted during regular operation days. Each
interview took 25 minutes and was conducted in a structured fashion. Each of the topics was
introduced by an open-ended question.
Given the qualitative nature of most of the information gathered and the size of the sample,
the survey responses were not amenable to statistical analysis. The findings are, therefore,
generally qualitative and descriptive.
The main problem in the field of health spa and wellness coexistence, seen by interviewed
managers, is in perception of both by medical doctors managing health spas. Traditionally, a
health spa manager had to be an experienced medical doctor responsible for all parts of
nursing day.
48 Medical Wellness. Gemeinsame Erklärung bzw. Letter of Intent. Deutcher Heilbäderverband. Downloaded
from: http://www.deutscher-heilbaederverband.de/cms/pages/positionen/medical-wellness.php (last accessed 7
March 2010)
49 Iibid.