01 / 2017 / Volume 6

The aim of this paper is to compare and assess the position of the spa and wellness sector in the structure of tourism in the Czech Republic. In this context, the article deals with the brief history of the Czech spa tourism and the development of spa tourism in the spa resorts, including the focus of specialized literature review. The methodological part consists of an explanation of the existing statistical information about the spa sector. The main part of the paper deals with the geographic analysis of current spa centres (the capacity of spa and total collective accommodation facilities, the number of spa patients and guests, guest attendance and their geographical structure). The assessment also includes the determination of the importance of the spa for overall spa tourism. Furthermore, the paper also deals with the development and localization of the selected forms of wellness tourism. As a pilot example, aquaparks built especially in the last 20 years in the Czech Republic were chosen.

Spa industry is presently an inherent part of Slovak tourism. For this reason, it has become a major interest of scientific and professional literature (economics, management, sociology, or geography). The main topic of this paper is the evaluation of tourism in Slovakia through a geographic analysis. This paper briefly evaluates the development and the importance of  spa, spa tourism and wellness and their main research areas and issues. Furthermore, the primary sources of tourism development, the overview of spa tourism and the wellness resorts, the accommodation establishments and the visitation rate are evaluated as well. In conclusion, functional and spatial typification of spa tourism and wellness in Slovakia is presented. The structure of the paper is designed to be appropriate for a comparison with V4 countries.

This paper presents and highlights the role and importance of spa and wellness tourism in Hungary. Ever since tourism has played an important role in the social-economic processes of the country the leading tourism product proved to be health tourism (spa and wellness) thanks to the advantageous physical geographical and social-political background. After the presentation of the country-specific theoretical system of spa and wellness, the paper examines the supply and the demand side together with competitor analysis and recent trends in spa and wellness in Hungary.

The aim of the paper is to present the situation of the spa resorts in Poland from the geographical point of view, emphasizing especially the tourist context of their existence. This article firstly deals with the brief history of spas in Poland and the definition of the phenomenon, presented in the Polish literature and legal acts. The main part of the paper presents the geographical analysis of the phenomenon: spatial distribution of the activities allowed by law, localization concerning the different kind of landscapes that accompanies the spas, natural and curative resources and the medical treatments based on their potential.  In addition, the tourist context analyzed with the support of the statistical data of the accommodation units, tourist sand its preferences, and health tourist establishments in the spa resorts and its usage is also crucial. The perspectives of the spa tourism development in Poland concerning the potential and obstacles are presented.

The paper focuses on the development of balneal care provision and its current state in the Czech spa industry in connection with the changes in legislation. In particular, the period of 2000-2015 is specified, including the survey of positive and negative changes resulting from the changes in legal norms regulating the balneal care provision. Special attention is paid to two turning points in the balneal care provision: the turn of 2012 and 2013 and the turn of 2014 and 2015, which were significantly affected by the changing legislation.