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You are here: Home Leisure Travel & Tourism Hungary's spa tourism

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29/07/2003Hungary's spa tourism

 
One of Hungary's greatest potential sources of wealth is the warm, bubbly therapeutic thermal waters that flow beneath the surface of much of the country. And if the Hungarian government, the tourism industry and private developers play their marketing cards correctly, they could help Hungary's long-term viability as a tourist destination in the thermal spa tourism sector. Thermal baths have a long history in Hungary, says Tamas Galambos, philosopher and spa aficionado who regularly wades in the almost 40- degree waters of Budapest's posh Gellert Hotel, the site of a Turkish bath that stands as a reminder of the 150 years of Turkish occupation of this country. The age-old Turkish baths and the spa culture that Hungarians adopted are one of the most positive legacies inherited from that period. The historic baths of the Gellert Hotel are only one of a myriad of what are today a host of exotic spas and bathhouses that are not only a hotspot for locals, but also an important tourist attraction. Some are Turkish baths with dark cave-like structures with mysterious light coming from domed ceilings, while some are simple local bathhouses. Others are recently constructed luxurious hotels that are all part and parcel of the infrastructure of many towns or cities. Underneath some 80 percent of Hungarian territory you can find some kind of medicinal waters, says Bela Pal, a state secretary for the tourism office of the Prime Minister's office. And, spurred on by a handful of regionally ambitious industry leaders, Hungary's spa business is going regional as well. Imposing local industry leaders like the Hungarian oil and gas company Mol and telecommunications giant Matav are on drives of their own for regional expansion. The nation's largest hotel and spa group, Danubius Hotel Rt, has not been left in the dust with its own dreams of the revival of the traditional spa culture. These ambitious plans come as the tourism industry is in a trough. World Tourism Organisation (WTO) reports from 2001 indicated that for the first time in 50 years tourism actually fell by some 6 percent after the World Trade Centre terrorist attacks. And the prospect of a war against Iraq is not improving the outlook. Danubius is hopeful that sticking to what it knows best during the tough times will bear fruit: spa tourism. Hungary has some 1289 thermal springs, 39 medicinal baths, five medicinal caves and 48 certified mineral or medicinal water springs that compete with Japan, Italy, France, Iceland and Germany as world leaders in the thermal bath industry. The Danubius Hotels Group, which for over three decades has owned and operated a chain of hotel and spa facilities in Hungary, began extending its operations into the Czech Republic in early 2000. In its first major international expansion, the firm paid USD 3.6 million for the four-star, 94-room Hotel Villa Butterfly in the North-Western Czech spa town of Marianske Lazne, otherwise known as Marienbad — a famous historical spa-town. The firm then paid USD 15.5 million for a controlling stake in Lacebne Lazne, which operates 800 guest rooms, four spa houses and 40 thermal springs in the same city. The golden age of Marienbad was from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of the First World War. The guest list reads like a list of the cultural and intellectual aristocracy of the age: Gustav Mahler, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, King Edward VII, Tsar Nicolas 2, the Emperor Francis Joseph II. The advent of the communist era ushered in a period of decline. Spar infrastructures decayed. Danubius is building on local spa traditions in central and eastern Europe that flourished in the late 19th century in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, says Imre Gellai, Thermal tourism consultant with the Matur Hungarian Tourism Association. The Hungarian government is also investing in spa tourism by refurbishing many dilapidated state-owned public baths. March 2003 DPA


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