Ourense, 07/05 / 2019.- Twenty-five experts in health tourism and thermal industry integrated in the advisory committee of Termatalia met this morning at the Cultural Center of the Provincial Delegation of Ourense to outline the professional actions of what will be already 19th edition of the International Fair of Thermal Tourism, Health and Welfare and to be held again in the Ourense thermal capital with Brazil as guest country.
The advisory committee outlined the actions of the so-called “Termatalia Week” that will concentrate in the province of Ourense, between September 17 and 21, three important international events related to health tourism. Coinciding with the celebration of Termatalia on September 19 and 20 and taking advantage of the synergies created by the fair, bringing together in Ourense professionals from the sector of some thirty countries, two more congresses will be held in a complementary manner that will contribute to the development of the sector by positioning Ourense capital, province and Galicia in general as international centers of thermal training. The 2nd Week of the Termatalia “will start with the International Congress on Thermalism and Demographic Challenge organized by the project” Thermal Raia “in the Balneario de Lobios with the leadership of the Provincial Deputation of Ourense, the Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation and the cross-border thermal municipalities and financed with Interrreg Funds from the European Union. The other professional meeting of the week will be the III edition of the Symposium on Thermalism and Quality of Life led by the Water Campus of the University of Vigo.
In this first meeting of Termatalia they wrapped up the new director of the fair, Emma González, the director of the Galician Tourism Agency, Nava Castro; the mayor of Ourense and executive vice president of Expourense, Jesús Vázquez; the provincial deputy of Thermalism, Ana Villarino; the councilman of Termalism of Ourense, Jorge Pumar; the vice president of the Municipal Chamber of Chaves, Francisco Antonio Chaves de Melo; the territorial director of ICEX in Galicia, Sergio Prieto; the president of the Spanish Society of Medical Hydrology, Francisco Maraver; the representative of Balnearios de Galicia, Rafael Luaña; the manager of the Mineral and Thermal Water Cluster of Galicia, Benigno Amor; the representative of the Tourism Cluster of Galicia, Ovidio Fernández; the president of the Ibero-American Society of Peloides Termales, José Luis Legido; the vice-rector of the Ourense campus, Esther de Blas; the professor of the Faculty of CC. Business and Tourism and member of the Water Campus, Elisa Alén; the manager of the Caldaria Group, Javier Soto; the coordinator of Termas Centro Portugal, Adriano Barreto; the member of the Ibero-American Association of Thermalism and Wellness, Antonio Freire; the director of the Master of Health Tourism of the Ourense Campus, José Antonio Fraiz; the doctor in Chemical Sciences and thermal researcher Marita Souto; the representative for Galicia of the Spanish Federation of Travel Agencies; José Luis López, and the vice president of the Association of Private Hospitals of Galicia, José Ignacio Vidal.
The director of the Tourism Agency of Galicia, Nava Castro, stressed during his speech that Galicia has tools such as its great thermal potential, the Chair of Medical Hydrology or the Cluster of Mineral and Thermal Water that enable it to be an international thermal reference. in Latin America as well as in Europe, and that the sector must continue to work and become more professional in order to take advantage of and value the opportunity of having hot springs throughout the entire territory.
The presence in this committee of representatives of different administrations, companies, professional associations and University, positions Termatalia as an example of international public-private cooperation and ratifies it in its role as a connecting bridge between European and Latin American thermalism.
The professionalization of the sector, both tourist and industrial and business will continue to occupy a prominent place in the next edition of the fair through the Tourist Recruitment Exchange between Tour Operators and Establishments, Suppliers of Capital Goods and potential importers from various countries , bottled drinking waters and distributors as well as professional visitors from some thirty countries. In addition, the celebration of the fair in Galicia has the added value of offering international professionals the possibility of making routes through the community to know in situ the welfare offer of the environment, which will contribute to the international promotion of this community as a leader in Thermal Tourism in Spain.
