Challenges for the European SPA Management. Results of the ILIS Project

Bielański Mikołaj, Saari Susanna, Wilkońska Anna, Tuominen Telle, Mora Inma, Binder Daniel, Kendale Deborah, Thacker Harprit, Pluszyńska Agata and Adamski Paweł
Additional contact information
Bielański Mikołaj: Faculty of Tourism and Recreation, University School of Physical Education in Kraków
Saari Susanna: Faculty of Well-being Services, Degree Programme in Hospitality Management, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Turku, Finland
Wilkońska Anna: Faculty of Tourism and Recreation, University School of Physical Education in Kraków
Tuominen Telle: Faculty of Well-being Services, Degree Programme in Hospitality Management, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Turku, Finland
Mora Inma: Florida Centre de Formació, Department of Tourism, Florida University, CV, Spain
Binder Daniel: Health Management in Tourism, FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, Austria
Kendale Deborah: University College Birmingham, United Kingdom, Birmingham
Thacker Harprit: University College Birmingham, United Kingdom, Birmingham
Pluszyńska Agata: Faculty of Tourism and Recreation, University School of Physical Education in Kraków
Adamski Paweł: Faculty of Tourism and Recreation, University School of Physical Education in Kraków

Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism, 2011, vol. 18, issue 2, 160-165

Abstract: Introduction. The spa industry has been rapidly growing throughout Europe in recent years, which has led to an associated increase in educational demand in spa management. The aim of the study was to identify the most important needs for training and the most significant skills among the spa managers and their personnel throughout Europe. Moreover, it was to research the background of spas were the study had taken place. Material and methods. 30 managers took part in semi structured interviews that used a pre-prepared questionnaire. The answers were analysed with Wilcoxon signed rank test and also the mean values were compared. Results. The needs for training and importance of skills vary from country to country but common areas of interest are: sales, marketing, quality and innovation management, legal regulations, operational and social skills. The complex character of answers to questionnaire was a result of different spa business models and differing domestic spa markets as well as variety of legal environments. Conclusions. Spa tourism creates a significant income among the other tourism disciplines since that further research is needed. Demands for the spa education differed accordingly to a stage of each country spa business development. Spa managers tend to express higher training needs for their employees than for themselves.

Keywords: spa manager; European Union; Innovations and Learning in Spa Management (ILIS); spa manager; European Union; Innovations and Learning in Spa Management (ILIS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/v10197-011-0013-7 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:spotou:v:18:y:2011:i:2:p:160-165:n:6

DOI: 10.2478/v10197-011-0013-7

Access Statistics for this article

Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism is currently edited by Ryszard Cieśliński

More articles in Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().