The Minister of Tourism, Francesc Camp, opened the session providing a complete vision of how the country is positioned in tourism. Although He mentioned that the health tourism market is still embryonic, not only in Andorra but everywhere, it may have a great growth potential. Also, Camp introduced the new tourism initiatives being offered and emphasized efforts which are taking place from Andorra Turisme in order to promote health and wellness offers already existing in the Principality.
Next, the deputy director of the Sport Hotels Resorts Spa wellness section, Antonio Rodriguez, talked about the hotel proposals in health and wellness. In this regard, he stressed the exclusive and personalized treatments on beauty and cosmetics, along with a complementary SPA service. Rodriguez has revealed that the public still lacks a “wellness culture” and companies must still educate consumers in this regard.
The deputy director of Caldea / Inuú, Cristian Fernandez, talked about the differences between health and wellness tourism: despite being complementary to each other, Inuú is more focused on prevention. Treatments offered by Innuú include 5 topics: water, sensory, beauty, nutrition and mind-body balance. He also noted that there is still a great ride ahead, because people tend to a healthy lifestyle. Inuú often provides pedagogical workshops, to promote these habits. In similar terms, the expansion director of Grup Roc Blanc, Alex Armengol, said their offer is also committed to preventive treatments.
The session was also attended by consultant Albert Grau, from Magma Consulting. It is a company that handles the management of hotel projects in Spain very focused on the health tourism sector. Grau has shown that there is a growing demand for such services from senior tourists.
After the meeting, the people in charge of the Actua initiative overviewed this second year of operation of the health and wellness cluster. The leader of the private sector, Pascual Gracia, stressed the need for the private sector to make a step forward in the management and operation of the cluster, which to date has been driven primarily from the public sector. Gracia continued with the need for the private sector to become the cluster driver leaving a secondary role to the Administration. At the same time, he considers important to draw a communication strategy for the works being held, as well as the message to be communicated from the cluster.
