Translated from English, the word “healing” means “healing, healing”. Accordingly, healing tourism is a health holiday, but it is not worth putting an equal sign between it and spa treatment. Sanatoriums, as a rule, provide complex treatment with medical procedures and diet according to individual indications. Staying in them is strictly regulated and subject to the regime. In contrast, the healing approach is more flexible, its concept reduced to a synthesis of relaxation and gentle healing through choice and pleasure rather than constraints.
Sanatoriums, by definition, focus on improving physical health through the methods of balneology, a branch of medicine that studies the effect of natural factors on the human body for their further use for the treatment and prevention of diseases. Balneo and pelotherapy are traditionally performed with the use of mineral waters and mud, at the top of the lists of the most popular procedures in health centers in the Stavropol Territory and other regions of Russia.
As for healing hotels, people also come to them to improve their mental health.
“The idea is to change habits smoothly and inconspicuously through relaxation of spirit, mind and body. Balance is achieved by a competent combination of nature’s energy, comfortable conditions, complete relaxation, various physical activities, nutrition and healing techniques.
– A member of the International Healing Hotels World association, announced the representatives of Green Flow, the first hotel in Russia.
Procedures in recovery hotels are offered accordingly: floating (non-contact vibroacoustic hydromassage) and neuromeditation (meditation using a neural interface that reads brain activity).
The newly released concept is already popular among Russians.
“In 2022, our Green Flow Rosa Khutor hotel occupancy rate was 80%, while the average resort occupancy rate was 58%. People come to us all year round, because besides accommodation, the price of the hotel includes many activities. “About 20% of guests return again, indicating not only the high level of the hotel but also the popularity of health-promoting tourism,” said Alexander Tertychny, founder and CEO of Green Flow.
Healing hotels are mainly chosen by a young audience.
Tertychny says, “We have about 80% of our guests – young people aged 24 to 45 who travel a lot around the country and are constantly looking for new places of “power”.
More than half (64%) of Green Flow guests are couples, and about a quarter (23%) of holidaymakers are families with children. Some come 13% of guests. Finally, 5% is MICE (business tourism).
Meanwhile, interest in sanatoriums is gaining momentum among Russians.
“The demand for spa holidays in Russia has been increasing in recent years. The exception is the pandemic year 2020. Then the industry successfully restored its indicators, reaching almost 2019 record year levels by the end of 2022. According to the latest data from Rosstat, we see a 15% increase for the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of 2022,” said Mikhail Danilov, medical director of the Health Tourism and Corporate Health Association.
Oleg Kozyrev, marketing director of the Travelata.ru online tour store, added that Russians most often choose sanatoriums in Abkhazia. A quarter (25%) of citizens bought health tours to Pitsunda, 19% to Sukhumi and Gagra, and 10% to Tsandripsh. 11% preferred health centers in Greater Sochi and 10% in Mineralnye Vody.
The increase in demand for sanatoriums, according to Danilov, was facilitated by the general trend of a conscious attitude to health, strengthened by the pandemic. He argues that the forced diversion of tourist flows from foreign resorts to Russian resorts, in particular to health centers, is affected.
Unlike remedial hotels, sanatoriums are chosen by a more adult audience. However, in recent years there has been a clear trend towards rejuvenation of visitors to health centers.
“As most of the health centers that are members of our association have stated, their target audience is getting younger every year. The average age today is already 48-50 and it is declining,” added Danilov. “There are demands for maintaining physical and mental health, prolonging an active lifespan among young, economically active people.”