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

40%). Only those guests were included in the survey, who positively answered to the
screening question about the motivation of their vacation being health.
The guests’ expectations about the destinations were questioned regarding the infrastructure
as well as various types of offers. Where applicable, the same set of questions of the
telephone survey and the guest questionnaire was used.
Modern demands in German health tourism
Generally spoken, Germans were questioned about their interest in health holidays. The focus
was taken exclusively on privately paid visits, in contrast to the traditional market of cure
treatments paid by the health insurances. The results of the multifaceted study can only be
shown showcased.
First of all, the participants were questioned whether they were familiar with the phrase
“medical wellness”. Only 21.8% said to have heard of the term before. The fraction of women
being familiar with the term was slightly higher (24.4%) than the group of men (19.1%). All
participants, regardless whether they knew the term medical wellness or not, were
subsequently questioned about what kind of associations they had with the expression. Most
of the associations stated were “wellbeing”, “health” and “medical attendance” (each about
17%). Less often was “cure” (12%), “holiday” (8.4%) and “rehabilitation clinic” (7.9%)
mentioned. Only 15.8% of all participants of the survey said not to have any association with
the concept of medical wellness.
Health tourism in Germany is often seen as a possibility to prolong the season beyond
summertime. In fact, 35.7% of the persons preferred spring for health tourism. Autumn was
mentioned next (26.6%), followed by summertime (18.9%). More than 10.3% said that the
season is of no importance.
The estimation of guests about the total costs of a health vacation are of great importance in
the process of deciding for a vacation. 44.9% of the Germans would prefer to spend less than
100 Euro per day and person including accommodation, meals and treatments. There is a
significant difference between the answers of men and women. 49.8% of the women stated to
spend preferably less than 100 Euro, whereas only 39.4% of the men answered similarly.
However, men were far more often willing to spend between 100 and less than 200 Euro (45.8
%). Only 39.7% of the women wanted to spend this amount. Concerning the expenditures of
200 Euro and more per day, men were also stronger represented than women.
The comparative study in the destination showed an even more specific detail: in
rehabilitations clinics, most of the guests (90%) paid privately less than 100 Euro per day and
person, including accommodation, meals and treatments (77.7 % of all guest even less than 25
Euro). This has to do with the fact, that most of the guests have their main costs covered by
the health insurance companies. Thermal bath and therapy centres showed almost similar
results. In hotels, however, 27.8% of the guests spend less than 100 Euro per day and person,
and further 37.7% spend between 100 and below 150 Euro.
The three most preferred types of accommodation have reached almost the same figures: the
holiday flat, four star hotel and the rehabilitation clinic were stated with 20.7%, 20.3% and
19% as being the most suitable accommodation for a health vacation.