Accessing Demand Characteristics of Thermal Tourism in Greece through Survey of Entrepreneurs and Visitors

In recent years the international tourist trend is focused on the alternative forms of tourism seeking tourist services different from the usual sea-sun model. Today, more and more people are visiting the thermal springs to take advantage of the therapeutic and beneficial properties, enjoying preventive and comprehensive health treatments. Thermal tourism is of great importance for Greece, since it has a huge number of thermal springs rich in physicochemical character, suitable for the treatment of various diseases that jet naturally and are not artificially pumped. The aim of this paper is to present the basic characteristics of the thermal tourism as well as part of the results of the primary survey to the visitors and the entrepreneurs of the thermal tourism in Greece. For the literature review, secondary survey was conducted through the collection of tourism statistics from libraries, organizations and internet. The primary survey was conducted through two new questionnaires addressed to the visitors who are using spa facilities and healing services of the towns Edipsos and Methana and to the businesses which are providing thermal tourism services in Greece. The revival of the thermal spa services in global scale requires that our country will also take the necessary measurements in order the thermal tourism centers to be converted into treatment and leisure centers offering services that respond to tourists from all the economic and social levels and ages throughout the year. The tourism development should move towards to the development of alternative forms of tourism, the modernization of the existing tourist accommodation and the implementation of a special tourism marketing program.