Posts in category: News

EHTTA was represented at The European Committee of the regions to celebrate the World Water Day, a very precious and exhaustible resource of our planet

A moment to underline the importance of thermal towns in the 21st century: the exceptional particularity of their waters, their sustainable urban development policies and the recovery of cultural heritage. The conference was held in the presence of experts in the sector, Meps, journalists.

The event was organised by Partenalia in cooperation with the European Historic Thermal Towns Association.

The European Historic Thermal Towns Association will be present in two halls at the ITB Berlin in March.

The ITB Berlin is the world’s leading travel trade show and will take place from 6 to 10 March this year. More than 8,900 exhibitors from all over the world present their countries, regions, cities and touristic products.
EHTTA has a stand in the HTI Medical Pavilion and is also visible in the Culture Lounge at the stand of the German Culture Route Partners through.

The possibility of appearing at the ITB Berlin is of great importance for the EHTTA, as it increases the visibility of the network for both partners and tourists. This is done, for example, by presenting all brochures and touristic offers, giving an interview at the ITB Medical Tourism Conference Day , displaying the EHTTA hashtag #thermaltravels on deck chairs and by a Power Point Presentation about all members and tourism packages shown in the Medical Pavilion. There will be interesting meetings with journalists as well as tour operators that are interested in the offers of the Historic Thermal Towns in Europe.  In addition, the network can be expanded by gaining new partners at these meetings. As a result, the network continues to grow and remains successful. It is also important that the EHTTA generates more tourists in order to continue to raise awareness of thermalism and culture in Europe.

As part of Fred. Olsen Travel, one of the UK’s most established travel companies, Fred. Holidays provides outstanding customer service, choice and value for money through our six distinct specialisms.

Bonded by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) and by the Civil Aviation Authority’s Air Travel Organisers Licensing (ATOL) scheme, you can look forward to your next adventure with the peace of mind that your money is financially protected in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

EHTTA is now promoted on www.fredholidays.co.uk/
Other opportunities will soon be developped.

Pinterest serves as a social network as well as a visual search engine with which users can discover ideas for their lives and remember them on virtual pin boards.

Other users can also repin uploaded images and share their experiences in form of comments or images under the pin.

On the EHTTA page each member has his own pin board on which different photos are posted. In this way, users can discover the various members of the network and gain first impressions and facts. Pinterest is another important way to increase the visibility of the network among tourists and attract their attention. Ppeople will come across EHTTA on Pinterest and possibly book their next holiday in one of the member cities or book an EHTTA tourism package.

Follow us on www.pinterest.fr/europeanthermaltravels/

At the occasion of the Thermal Heritage Day, held in Budapest (Hotel Gellert) last 12.10.2018, was presented the book “Thermal Tourism and Spa Heritage in Europe. The case of  EHTTA”, written by Mario Crecente and Paul Simons (Vice President and President of the EHTTA Scientific Committee, respectively) with the support of the archaeologist Silvia G. Soutelo.

The book includes a definition of the concept of Thermal Heritage as well as an overview of the current state of thermal tourism and spa heritage. Besides, it presents the history, purposes and projects of the European Historic Thermal Towns Association EHTTA that was launched in 2009, and boasts also the honour of being in charge of the development and implementation of the Cultural Route of Historic Thermal Towns – one of just 33 Cultural Routes designated by the Council of Europe.

The book is available for download at EHTTA at https://historicthermaltowns.eu/download/thermal-tourism-and-spa-heritage-in-europe-the-case-of-ehtta-2019/ 

The workshop organized by EHTTA and several partners on “Innovative approaches to urban and regional development through cultural tourism” took place in Caldas da Rainha (Portugal) on 11th January.

The event focused on the latest research regarding cultural tourism and the role of the thermal towns of Europe as pioneers in this issue.
The programm also included a special presentation about the concept of the atlas (EHTTA project), and a Geographic Information System to measure and manage tourism impacts.

An application for European funding was prepared at this occasion.
Thirty experts in hydrotherapy, from nine countries, members and partners of the European Historic Thermal Towns Association (Ehtta), were gathered in Caldas da Rainha.
The aim of this meeting was to exchange and gather ideas that contribute to work on an application for European funds for the development of a Thermal Atlas in Europe. The proposal for this application, will be presented in Brussels on 14 March.
Mondariz (Spain), Bath (in the United Kingdom) and Caldas da Rainha were the first cities to integrate the initiative.

 

Find out more on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK-9uuBKKac&feature=youtu.be

 

30 November 2018, Athens

EUSAIR – Cultural Toursim and Locali Identity panel

The EUSAIR Workshop on “Cultural Tourism and Local Identity” took place on the 30th of November 2018 in Athens. This Workshop gave the opportunity to showcase the local identity as a competitive advantage of the participant countries as far as sustainable tourism development is concerned as well as boost networking among the participants, the exchange of best practices, knowledge and experience on this specific topic.

It welcomed experts who work on special interest tourism and thematic products, in particular on cultural tourism in local governments, in national authorities, but also politics, businesses, industry and NGOs. Workshop was organized by the Greek Ministry of Tourism with the support of the Greek Ministry of Economy and Development (EUSAIR Facility Point- Greece). This initiative lied within the framework of EUSAIR and its set priorities, namely the diversification of the tourism offer, sustainable development and the extension of the tourism season. Key objective was to raise the awareness among all the EUSAIR stakeholders on the development of sustainable and thematic/cultural routes and products, their significance and contribution on the valorisation and esteem of local identity and on the local development upon sustainability principles.

See more here.

The European Historic Thermal Towns Association takes part in its first virtual fair. On the 27^th and 28^th of November the EU Commission organizes the first EU-China Virtual Travel Fair on cultural tourism (VTF) as a contribution to the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY).

The fair on Cultural Tourism is an initiative to facilitate the B2B matchmaking of the travel industry between China and Europe via a fully immersive virtual reality platform that ensures meaningful life-like engagement amongst participants via avatar. A huge number of booths are offered to key EU-China non-commercial actors focusing on trans-European products. The Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe are one of the selected exhibitors as well as EHTTA.

With EHTTA’s booth the network has the chance to showcase its members and the thermal heritage to Chinese travel trade in an innovative and interactive way. Brochures, presentations, pictures and web links are presented in a very futuristic way. Every visitor is creating his or her unique virtual profile and 3D avatar. They can seamlessly access the environment on different devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets or VR glasses, and be online simultaneously to engage with each other: people see each other in the environment, meet, exchange business card, chat and talk in virtual reality.

This virtual fair is another new platform for EHTTA to show the richness of history, culture, art and thermal heritage that connects countries and people across Europe.

EHTTA has been invited to the International Workshop “Cultural Routes of the Olive Tree as a model for Europe’s values, heritage and sustainable development”

 Raffaella Caria, EHTTA Executive Secretary, has given a presentation on the Association in the session: “Creative platforms for intercultural dialogue, citizenship and participation”.

A particular focus on the recruitment in these countries, 12 at the moment,  has been the core of her presentation and discussion as EHTTA is now looking at the South East Europe and CEI (Central Europe Initiative) countries. 

A fruitful 2 day working session for the EHTTA network as a whole with the participation of Marcel Medak, Vice Mayor of Daruvar (Croatia) EHTTA active member since 2011, who informed the present CEI and South East Countries on the benefit of belonging to the EHTTA Association and of Gunel Aslanova, Head of Division for Cultural Routes Development at the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, who established future connections with the development of the Olive Route in Azerbaijan.

FOCUS ON:

–  new opportunities to explore themes representative of European history

– discussion on the innovative approaches to promote:

– the European cultural heritage

– sustainable and responsible tourism

– local development

The event has been organized by the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Croatia with the support from CEI and of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe.