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

(Eesti Riiklik… 2006). In 2009, the marketing concept “Introduce Estonia” was developed on
the initiative of Enterprise Estonia to establish the manner and ways in which Estonia is to be
marketed. Presenting Estonia as a travel destination includes four main topics that are most
important to the country: cultural holiday, city holiday, nature holiday and wellness holiday
(“Introduce Estonia” brand manual 2009). Presenting Estonia as a wellness holiday
destination – if there were a competition for selecting the spa kingdom of the world, Estonia
could easily snatch that title (Instructions for focus topic of wellness holiday 2009). Estonia is
a spa paradise – with an impressive number of spas considering its small territory and
population.
Estonia has long traditions and experience from more than 170 years in the development of
resort, health and spa tourism. The relatively favourite geographic position, the sea, beautiful
natural sandy beaches and local natural resources, particularly curative mud but also mineral
waters have been the main preconditions for the birth and development of resorts, particularly
health resorts in Estonia. A number of new spa hotels were built in 2000–2008 in different
regions of Estonia and these have been the main and significant tourism products outside
Tallinn which have attracted visitors all the year round in Estonia.
In 2009, 1.38 million foreign tourists stayed overnight at the accommodation establishments
of Estonia (-3,9% compared to 2008). The number of nights spent was 2.74 million (-6,5%
compared to 2008). Foreign overnights on both holiday and business trips decreased (by 5%
and 4 %) , whereas overnights on other trips (incl. spa and health treatment trips) decreased
by 13%. The economic crisis which started in 2008 has had a negative effect on all tourism
sectors, including on spa tourism, and the quality of the services offered and communication
of appropriate marketing messages to potential visitors have become much more important
than earlier (Estonian Tourism Statistics…).
Through different times, the objectives of the Estonian Spa Association have been to develop
and provide high-quality health resort and rehabilitation treatment and spa services. In the
course of that time the competition in the spa hotel market has dramatically increased and
therefore it has become increasingly important to communicate clear messages concerning the
specific characteristics and quality standards of hotels. In 2006 the Estonian Spa Association
adopted a decision to launch a project for the development of classification and categorisation
criteria for Estonian spa hotels, and the Pärnu College of the University of Tartu is involved in
the project as a partner.
Research Design
The objectives of the first survey were to obtain an objective overview of the current situation
of the capacities, services, volumes and conditions of the spa hotels which are members of the
Estonian Spa Association and of the situation in the market. As only medical spas belonged to
the Estonian Spa Association during the planning and conduction of the survey, the objective
was to use the results of the survey as a basis for the development of classification and
categorisation criteria for Estonian spa hotels according to international models bearing in
mind medical spa hotels. A survey in the form of a questionnaire was used as the research
method. The long questionnaire of the survey consisted of four parts: general characterisation
of the organisation, infrastructure, clients and staff of spa hotels. Each part in its turn
consisted of related questions and detailed subquestions. The sample of the survey consisted
of all 15 spa hotels which belonged to the Estonian Spa Association in 2006. The survey was
conducted in the period from 17 April to 27 May 2006 and responses were received from all
spa hotels included in the sample.