Health spas are most definitely one of the flagships of Slovenian tourism. The hard work from previous years is now resulting in record tourist visits.
The number of overnight stays by foreign guests in Slovenia's hotels has grown by 14 percent. More than 100.000 Slovenians have also registered for overnight hotel stays. Especially delightful are the figures for Russian guests. Last year the number of Russian visits dropped by almost one half, but this year there's no room for such concern.
Slovenia's tourism sector, in total, did register less Russian guests at the half-year mark. However the country's health spas have more optimistic figures regarding guests from the Russian Federation. Figures from July pointed to a 23 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
According to the head of the Slovenian Spas Association Iztok Altbauer the record number of visits is related to the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin: "I'm convinced that the positive news and mentioning of Slovenia in Russian media did persuade a number of guests to make short-term decisions on coming. We all hope that the drop in numbers of Russian guests has come to a stop and that the number of visits – perhaps also connected to Putin's visit – will start rising again."
Russians are considered among the more desired guests, as they usually spend longer holidays and stay for around 10 days.
We ourselves are our biggest obstacle
Tourism is a long-distance race, stresses Altbauer. An example from the Israeli market shows an increase in health spa visits in that country of 126 percent – a result of long-term work on the market and well planned agreements with tourist agencies signed more than a year before the start of a tourist season.
Mr. Altbauer warns of the biggest obstacles in the growth of health spa tourism: "We ourselves are our biggest obstacle when we don't do enough to provide quality services, and when we don't have a rich enough offer adapted to our guests, who are ever more demanding. A quick increase in prices can also do damage."
On the other hand health spas also need to earn enough to be able to invest and keep up with the latest trends. But a quality offer does not only include new equipment, but also educated staff, adds Altbauer.