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Creating a blueprint for geothermal hot springs and bathing tourism strategy

Creating a blueprint for geothermal hot springs and bathing tourism strategy Hot Springs/ Bathing/ Spa promotional material in Iceland (source: Matt Sykes)
Alexander Richter 7 Oct 2019

A great report sharing a blueprint for a hot springs and bathing tourism strategy for the state of Victoria, provides great background and ideas for an overall strategy related to hot spring culture and bathing.

The global Hot Springs Initiative shared a fantastic new report by Matt Sykes, Experience Manager at Peninsula Hot Springs in Victoria, Australia. He visited Iceland as part of his study tour of the bathing culture in the Nordic countries in the summer of 2019 and now shared his report and a “blueprint for a Victorian hot springs and bathing tourism strategy”. The report might as well be a blueprint for hot spring development beyond the state of Victoria in Australia.

The global Hot Springs Initiative is connecting the global community of hot springs and geothermal resources by raising awareness of this unique and distinct segment of global recreation, health and tourism industry (community). As part of its work it shares some great insights and research on its website.

The report called “The Great Victorian Bathing Trail” can be downloaded here (pdf). The report provides a

The report provides a wealth of information on wellness tourism in general, current hot springs set ups and the global benchmark set by Iceland and the Nordic region.

The details about the different hot springs in  Australia are rather inviting. As part of his research, Matt Sykes, who is Experience Manager at the Peninsula Hot Springs in Victoria, Australia, travelled to Tasmania/ Australia, Japan, Victoria/ Australia, Central Australia and then through Iceland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, England and China.

It was a pleasure to meet Matt during his visit to Iceland, thanks also to Sigurdur Bergmann Gunnarsson of Veitur, the heating utility for Reykjavik, for showing us the well in Laugardal.

Source: Global Wellness Institute – Hot Springs Initiative