What does it involve?
This is a good question, because sensory marketing, among other things, is linked to this approach to the product, but about that in a moment. Let’s look at this issue through the prism of the tourism product and even the spa product. After all, we have over forty spas in the country competing for visitors, especially commercial ones. And there are more and more of these. The days when people coming for spa treatment could be treated like an incapacitated subject who is assigned to specific products of the treatment infrastructure are certainly over. We are also moving away from defining spa clients based on demographics such as age, gender or education. This is of no use to anyone. More important are certain lifestyles that accompany the bather during their stay at the spa, and these generate both content and marketing and PR tools. What to take into account then?
The idea of ecomuseums
It involves presenting an integrated picture of nature, tangible and intangible culture and history of the region, as well as the centuries-old heritage of its inhabitants. After the treatments, almost every spa tourist looks for information and distinctive features for the place he or she has visited. These may be the unique scenic qualities that mountain or coastal spas exploit. It could be interesting and characteristic historical objects or characters associated with a place. In Szczawno-Zdrój, for example, the beautiful Spa House building is linked to the history of the Hochberg family, owners of the Wałbrzych mines and Książ Castle, and especially to the figure of the local superheroine Princess Daisy, who personally participated in designing and furnishing the Grand Hotel, i.e. the current Spa House, the prototype of the Grand Hotel in Sopot.
Variety style
When coming to a spa, the bather often expresses a desire to confront a different lifestyle from the one he knows from his own experience. He or she is looking for opportunities to take advantage of the ‘culture of the living plan’, i.e. events organised in the spa environment: festivals, concerts, exhibitions, cultural or culinary events. This provides him with an attractive variety in relation to everyday experiences. He or she is happy to ‘buy’ the ethnicity of a particular region. This also includes sensory marketing, which aims to provide audiences with memorable sensory experiences such as taste, smell and sound. In 1826, the sixteen-year-old Fryderyk Chopin came to Duszniki-Zdrój to recuperate from an illness. For years, the International Chopin Festival has been held here. There are patients who insist that their stay in the spa should coincide with the festival.
Recreational style
Many bather-tourists want to recreate their vital energy. They want to regenerate themselves physically and mentally. It is a very different time for them, in line with the philosophy of a Bakhtinian, carnivalesque reversal of normality. It is the pleasure of being in a ‘world in reverse’. The time spent at the spa imposes a different style of behaviour from what is the bather’s everyday life in his or her own environment. The colourful spa imaginarium is based, among other things, on the ‘spa spirit’. ‘We’re on holiday in these highland forests/In the sunshine we sunbathe/Orchestra of the sicko begin/This is not your fina, sze podryfam Cię’ sang Wojciech Młynarski and this text is still relevant today with a kind of celebration. In most of the spa houses, the doors of the facilities are closed at 10 p.m. Before that hour, you can see fifty or sixty-year-old ‘teenagers’ sneaking into their accommodation. Entertainment and recreation are natural elements of the ‘world over’. Spa guests often want to shed the ballast of responsibility, of defined rules of conduct. They are looking for a moment for carefree freedom.
Makeover style
Often the aim of a spa stay is to repair, improve, regenerate and heal the body. Health is a renewable value for the representatives of this style. The modern version of makeover is spa and wellness. In spa towns, these services are usually highly developed. They are either run by the spas themselves or by private operators. It is important that such an offer exists. It’s a bit like having to have wi-fi in a hotel. Today, few people choose to stay in facilities that do not guarantee contact with the world.
Bling-blang style
Some visitors ostentatiously abuse their wealth. The flaunting of wealth is an attraction for them. This style often leads to polarisation and division of the bather into ‘commercial’ and those with National Health Insurance. This will not change, but the bling-blang style has an impact on the image of the spa. In this respect, it is somehow necessary to reconcile water and fire. This can be done, for example, by preparing different stay packages with proposals for the wealthier and the less well-off.
The presented lifestyles of the spa-tourists and the existing actual arguments in the surroundings are the starting point for the creation of a spa tourism product. The elements of this product should be communicated using appropriately selected communication tools, as well as in the narrative adopted by those responsible for PR. In this way, it is possible to create a unique identity for a resort, spa or other tourist peregrinations. Because it really all comes down to creating a USP (unique special proposition) and using it to evoke sensations and experiences that are not forgotten.
Marek Szeles
PR Expert
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