Posts in category: News

EHTTA has appointed the future full time Executive Director, Mrs Simone Zagrodnik.

The European Historic Thermal Towns Association is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Executive Director beginning in August 2020, Mrs Simone Zagrodnik.

Simone has been attending EHTTA events since 2011 as the Head of Marketing for Wiesbaden Congress and Marketing, where she has worked for the last fifteen years. She is well-known to EHTTA members and its partners, having been involved in the life of the Association and represented EHTTA at international tourism fairs such as ITB and WTM, and represented the Association at conferences such as HTI.

We are delighted to welcome her as EHTTA’s Executive Director and wish her every success in the future, in this important role, which she will start on 1st August 2020.

Regional training exercise for the Cultural Routes in Azerbaijan
The Ministry of Culture in Azerbaijan (EHTTA Associate Member), and the European Institute of Cultural Routes in Luxembourg invited us to take part in a Regional training exercise for the Cultural Routes in Azerbaijan, on 28th and 29th February in the capital Baku.
The EHTTA Co-ordinator, Catherine Lloyd was asked to moderate a panel of speakers from the different routes involved in the training, the Route of Olives, Iter Vitis, The Rock Art Trail and the Route of Historic Thermal Towns. Interestingly the panellists were all private sector partners, who are often the ones at the forefront of the production of the olives, wine etc which are celebrated as part of the Cultural Heritage of the Routes.
Catherine also assisted Carolina Clark, the Project Manager of the European Institute of Cultural Routes to deliver some training about how to “be” a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe, using several of EHTTA’s projects and initiatives as examples of good practice.
The hospitality shown by Gunel Aslanova, representative of the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan was second to none!

Executive Council in Paris, 22nd of January The EHTTA Council met in Paris on 22nd January 2020 at the French Ministry of Culture, the first one of 2020 and the first one with EHTTA’s new President and Vice Presidents. Representatives from the Ministry gave some presentations about the French Cultural Routes programme, and heard about EHTTA and some of its initiatives and plans for the future.
The main discussions centred around the new EHTTA Structure, and the job description and interview process for the new Executive Director. It is expected that the new Executive Director will be in post by the 1st August, and a full announcement about the outcome of those interviews will be made to EHTTA members as soon as it’s possible to do so.
Much of what was discussed at the meeting – communications, exhibitions, future plans and meetings has had to be put on hold until the end of the Coronavirus. Future meetings will probably have to be held online – we are all working out how to keep EHTTA operational and promoting its members through these difficult times!

Thermalism and Human Rights – the conection is EHTTA! New EHTTA President José Manuel Baltar Blanco has released a video to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Founding of EHTTA, the European Historic Thermal Towns Association, at date which falls on Human Rights Day and the 70th Anniversary of the singing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. EHTTA is a network which now represents over 50 members in 17 countries, having grown from the six original founding members, which include the Spanish thermal town of Ourense in Galicia, Spain, where Mr Baltar is the President of the Deputación Ourense. Speaking in front of the piping hot As Burgas fountain in Ourense, Mr Baltar said “Human Rights Day is particularly relevant to us because the thermal spa towns of Europe were the “Cafés of Europe”, places where all levels of society could mix, exchange ideas and even sow the seeds of social change. The “rules” of our spa towns ensured civilised conduct, and over the centuries they have played a leading role in fostering peace, co-operation and creativity, protecting the built and natural environment, and promoting sustainable cultural development.” Having worked together and grown for the last ten years, EHTTA is now ready to embrace the future, and to continue to work to promote the concept and values of thermalism throughout Europe and at the highest levels. Mr Baltar said, “ I believe that thermalism is a true European value and is at the heart of our continued well-being as a continent. The way our towns developed around our unique, almost magical health-giving thermal springs; the way they developed infrastructure – beautiful and functional buildings designed to care for people as well as to entertain them; and the way the towns drew people from far and wide across all levels of society to meet, inspire each other and to create new forms of society – this is thermalism. We will continue to give voice to thermalism, which is the voice of tradition and well-being, as well as the voice of future generations. It’s a thermalism that is a true European value, and which we will continue to protect as a human right.”

Link to the video

The most famous little man in Brussels, the Belgian capital, joined the growing community of “Bathrobe Addicts©” in time for the EHTTA 10th Anniversary celebrations! Created in the spa towns of the Massif Central (France), the Bathrobe Addicts© community now has a base in Belgium where the campaign is being developed in partnership with the Tourist Office of Spa and the Association of the Route des Villes d’eaux du Massif Central. EHTTA’s 50 spa towns represented by their delegates and elected representatives were in Brussels on the 9th October in order to celebrate European thermal culture and the thermal way of life. A complete outfit comprising minature bathrobe, slippers and bag, branded with the Bathrobe Addicts© logo was presented to members of the Order of the Mannekin-Pis at the Town Hall in the Grand Place. After the ceremony, EHTTA Members, all dressed in the iconic white bathrobes, joined a marching band to parade to the site of the famous statue where his new outfit was unveiled and his special song was sung by everyone! The bathrobe, which is a simple but effective emblem for all spa towns which are the epitome ofwellness and thermal experiences, is now the 1302nd costume in the Manneken-Pis costume museum in Brussels! Find out more about the brand:https://www.lesaccrosdupeignoir.com/

Tourism is an important driver of economic and social development. This is why we, the fifty undersigned European tourism stakeholders, representing all aspects of the EU tourism sector, appael for greater recognition of tourism in the new European Commission and the creation of a Commission portfolio on “Transport and Tourism”.

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EHTTA will be one of the official partners of the European Health Tourism Summit to be held in Brussels on Wednesday, 20th November 2019. Mr. Manuel Baltar Blanco, EHTTA president, will participate in the panel discussion at the European Parliament building.

The Belgian EHTTA member, the City of Spa, will provide a tour for interested delegates on 21st November.

On 30 October 2019, 66 cities, among them Afyonkarahisar (Turkey) and Caldas da Rainha (Portugal) as EHTTA members, have been designated as UNESCO Creative Cities by the Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay. As laboratories of ideas and innovative practices, the UNESCO Creative Cities bring a tangible contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through innovative thinking and action. Through their commitment, cities are championing sustainable development actions that directly benefit communities at urban level.

“All over the world, these cities, each in its way, make culture the pillar, not an accessory, of their strategy,” says UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “This favours political and social innovation and is particularly important for the young generations.”

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EHTTA attended the 9th Annual Advisory Forum of the Council of Europe in Sibiu from 2nd – 4th of October. The three days during the Forum have focused on the theme “Cultural Routes for Cultural Tourism” and many interesting presentations and speeches have been given to this very interesting topic. This Forum also celebrated the Routes’ achievements in the field of Cultural Tourism with the Annual Award to four best practices in the field of “Cultural Tourism and Sustainable Cultural Development”: EHTTA and its Cultural Route has been awarded for the: European Thermal Heritage Day to be celebrated every year at the 12th of October since 2018. Our is one among the four the best practices that convinced the jury as concrete sustainable projects. We received this recognition from MrsBirgitta RINGBECK and Mr Bogdan Gheorghe TRIF.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of EHTTA the European Historic Thermal Towns Association (EHTTA) has organized a conference and reception to focus on the thermal heritage in Europe on 12th of October 2019. After the first celebration of the “European Thermal Heritage Day” on 12th of October 2018 in Budapest, the forum organized this year was joined by many politicians and companies linked to the Cultural Heritage of Europe.

The event included presentations and an exchange about European projects like “Innova Spa” or “Les Accros du Peignoir”. A huge timeline about EHTTA and all success in the last 10 years showed once more the importance of the thermal heritage that connects countries and people across Europe and how EHTTA and its members are working together to keep this heritage alive and promote the cities.

Having this idea and mission in mind the book “What’s spa? SPA: A concept to be re-defined“, written by Mario Crecente was published during the celebrations in Spa, Belgium.

The network continues to aim the official declaration of the European Thermal Heritage Day on 12th of October in future, to protect the thermal heritage and make the European citizens aware of what they inherited from their ancestors.