EWA Summer Meeting with Pool & Spa Experts from Five European Countries
(eap) This year's summer meeting of the European Waterpark Association e.V. (EWA), the association representing the interests of European leisure pools and spas, brought 90 experts from the water park industry to Lake Constance from June 4 to 6 – three days, three countries, three highly diverse concepts for public pools. Every two years, the members of the association meet to visit exemplary businesses from the pool and leisure industry. This year, three very different facilities were presented that are successful in their respective market segments: The Mineralheilbad St. Margrethen in Switzerland as an example of a health-oriented thermal spa, Center Parcs Allgäu in Leutkirch, Germany, as a vacation and leisure resort for families, and the new Seebad in Bregenz, Austria, which, with a combination of indoor pool, outdoor pool and sauna, reflects the entire spectrum of municipal services of general interest.
The highlight of the industry meeting was a visit to the Mineralheilbad in St. Margrethen. The festive dinner in the evening took place in the bathing hall. Where usually the guests of the mineral spa enjoy the healing effects of the mineral Appenzell spring water, there were festively set tables not only at the edge of the pool, but also in the (empty) pools of the spa... EWA board member Harald Gabriel was also able to welcome municipality president Reto Friedauer to this special event: “You can consider yourself lucky to have found entrepreneurs with your partners from Liechtenstein, who have, after all, invested not only in the mineral spa, but also in the construction of the neighboring hotel, who provide essential impulses for the development of St. Margrethen”, said Gabriel.
Before the dinner, the members of the European Waterpark Association were welcomed in Bregenz by Mayor Michael Ritsch at the Festspielhaus. Dr. Bernhard Fink and his team from the structural engineering department of the Vorarlberg state capital presented the new Seebad, which is still under construction, to the guests on site. At the expert meeting, the relevance of leisure pools and spas for tourism and their effects on the regional economy were also discussed repeatedly. A best-practice example of this is certainly the Center Parcs Allgäu in Leutkirch, which has become an “anchor property” for tourism in the Allgäu.
The conclusion of the three-day tour: Despite a high density of offers, the spas and leisure facilities around Lake Constance manage to successfully create unique selling points by focusing on different target groups and thus hold their own against the competition. You can read more and in detail in our magazine issue EAP 4/2023 at the beginning of July. ■
