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

The statistics obtained from the survey have been adjusted to make the results unambiguous.
The analysis of information on the volumes of services, rooms and the staff was based on the
description „volume per 100 beds“, which made it possible to make the analysis of the
information more understandable than „volume per bed“, in which case the figures would
have been very low and difficult to analyse. The statistics were analysed with the MS Excel
spreadsheet and the results were presented in the research report in the generalised form, i.e.
no indicators of any spa hotel were presented separately (Eesti Spa Liidu spaahotellide…
2006). The survey gave very detailed information on the rooms and the services provided by
spa hotels.
On the basis of the results of the first survey, the respective materials of several countries and
organisations and client surveys conducted earlier in spa hotels, the conception of the
classification of Estonian spa hotels and the draft categorisation system of medical spas were
developed by the end of 2006 (Spaahotellide kategooriad... 2006). In the course of 2007 the
categorisation criteria were tested and appropriate additions were made. Unlike the hotel
categorisation criteria applied in Estonia, the categorisation criteria for medical spas include
increasingly more so-called soft criteria (criteria related to the staff and quality of service).
Medical spas have to ensure an appointment of an attending physician to each client, if
necessary, the number of places for therapeutic procedures per 100 beds is 10 in the case of
one and two stars, 13 in the case of three and four stars and 15 in the case of five stars, i.e. not
less than 13 different clients should be able to receive therapeutic procedures at the same time
in a three-star spa hotel. A three-star hotel should have as a minimum 3 physicians per 100
beds. The opening hours of therapeutic services should be not less than nine hours six hours in
three-star spa hotels.
The Estonian Spa Association, which until 2009 only acted as an umbrella organisation for
medical spas, has extended its membership to other spa and wellness spa hotels. Stage 2 of
implementation of the spa hotel categorisation system was started – development of
categorisation criteria for spa and wellness spa hotels. A new survey was planned and
conducted in cooperation with the Pärnu College of the University of Tartu. The objectives of
the second survey were to obtain an objective overview of the current situation of the
capacities, services, volumes and conditions of the hotels which market themselves as spa
hotels or wellness spa hotels.
A survey in the form of a questionnaire was used as the research method. The sizeable
questionnaire which was, however, different in many respects from the questionnaire of the
first survey, made it possible to thoroughly map the spa and wellness spa hotels. The main
differences from the first survey were the absence of the section on medical services (spa and
wellness spa hotels have no license for the provision of rehabilitation treatment services and
no doctors among their staff) and a great emphasis on the holistic approach to the provision of
services (incl. the volumes, diversity, size and conformity of rooms, personal service, etc.)
and formation of the ambience, which are characteristic of the wellness concept.
The sample of the survey consisted of 10 spa hotels which market themselves as spa or
wellness spa hotels. The survey was conducted in the period from 01.12 to 31.12.2009. The
final analysis of the results of the survey will be completed in February 2010 and the
preparation of categorisation criteria for spa and wellness spa hotels is going on at the same
time and will hopefully be completed with their approval and implementation by the end of
2010. A common characteristic feature of the spa hotels which responded to the survey was