How can we measure the socioeconomic impact of spa tourism on regional development? We addressed this question together with a team of researchers from the Faculty of Economics at the University of West Bohemia during an internal workshop held as part of the Spa Research Center project.
There is a wide range of publicly available secondary data describing economic development, the labor market situation, demographic trends, developments in tourism, and, for example, the level of education in individual regions. The aim of the CLV project's socio-economic team is to link this data with data from the spa industry (number of patients admitted, average treatment time, converted number of full-time equivalent professional staff, etc.) and thus identify relevant indicators for monitoring the impact of the spa industry on regional development.
In addition to a clear presentation of secondary data, the monitoring will also include indicators derived from the collection and evaluation of primary data, such as profiles of visitors to spa facilities or trends in the perception of spa tourism by local residents. Local governments, businesses, and research institutions will thus obtain quick and clear output that can serve as a basis for their strategic decisions.
The outcome of this project should be a generally applicable methodology enabling the monitoring of the impact of spa tourism on the development of not only the Karlovy Vary Region.
