Health and wellness tourism as a local development factor: an analysis of the portuguese thermal and mineral springs

Health and Wellness Tourism - For a local development strategy: the Portuguese case, it presents a reflection on the new and re-dimensioned (re) interpretation of the thermalism in Portugal. Interviewing a holistic vision of the strategic product "Health and Wellness Tourism "with the exemplification at the level of the case study - thermal and mineral springs in Portugal -, a new proposal of a model of strategic management of the tourist destiny is consubstantiated, in order to identify the contribution of thermal tourism to local development. It should be emphasized, therefore, the health and wellness tourism in Portugal, despite its regional differences, as a pool of factors that permeate the development of a health and wellness destination, the development of wellness facilities, in addition to the tradition and experience of the spas and the affirmation, today, of a competitive offer. The study results in an act of searching and documented identification of the strategies and management models followed by the international and national good practices of health and wellness tourism, not losing sight of the competing destinations that have, after all, a similar offer In addition, there is an empirical study of the profile and consumption habits of the health and wellness tourist, supported by the case study, which allowed to achieve a sense of the motivations, behaviors, perceptions and satisfaction of the same, and also to outline a development strategy for the thermalism based on the pillars of sustainability, quality, innovation and competitiveness.