Every year, the app. 18.000 European health resorts and spas generate a turnover of about € 30 billion. Employing over 750.000 people this sector is one of the biggest employers in the EU – in fields healthcare and tourism – especially in regions where little or no industry is to be found.

More than 1400 health resorts in Europe have made an important contribution to public health since centuries. Apart from medical treatment, they also contain a wide range of cultural amenities and show fascinating architecture in a cultivated environment, in many cases adjacent to unspoilt countryside. Their unique mineral resources such as thermal springs, mineral springs and peloids are successfully used for treatments in the areas of preventive medicine, rehabilitation and health resort medicine. They also include numerous Kneipp centres and thalasso resorts in Europe, where treatment involves the sea climate and marine products.

European health resorts offer a diverse range of services. Nowadays, the classical methods supervised by spa doctors are accompanied by an array of techniques for helping patients to maintain their good health and for recreation. This includes also those offers that combine traditional – even exotic – natural healing methods with medical competence.

ESPA’s paramount job is to support and strengthen its members and their members. Its objective is to maintain and develop the long-standing health resort culture in Central Europe and to align it within today’s national medical systems and in the European Union.