- Today took place the last meeting of the committee that organizes both international events that will be held in Expourense between September 15 and 17 in a hybrid format
- The objective of this meeting was to present the scientific program that has the participation of fifty speakers from 10 countries and to encourage professionals from the sector from all over the world to enroll in it.
Ourense, 08/31/2021.- Complete scientific program and open registration period to attend. This is the moment in which the 2nd International Congress on Water and Health promoted by Termatalia and the 4th International Symposium on Thermalism and Quality of Life organized by the Campus da Auga da Universidade de Vigo meet, which will be held jointly in Expourense between on September 15 and 17, 2021. They will have a virtual format so they can be followed physically from the Ourense fairgrounds or virtually from anywhere in the world.
This morning the last meeting of the organizing committee of these congresses was held in virtual format, in which the final scientific program was presented, which will include the participation of fifty experts from 10 countries. The director of Termatalia, Rogelio Martínez, requested collaboration in the dissemination of the program among university students and professionals associated with the different entities that make up this committee. International virtual participation is guaranteed by the number of registrations that are being received, so the director encouraged professionals from Galicia and Portugal to participate in person, since Expourense has launched a health protocol that guarantees hygiene, safety and distance between attendees.
This congress has the objective of bringing together the international thermal community around the Termatalia brand and continuing to position Ourense and Galicia as a center for international professional training in thermalism. Termatalia is an event that brings together professionals from more than 30 countries in each edition and Expourense has decided to postpone the fair as such until September 2022 in order to then guarantee the massive presence of professionals, also taking advantage of the celebration of the double Holy Year Xacobeo to attract tourists to Galicia, since the fair’s social program includes visits to different points of interest in this community.
This meeting was led by the new managing director of Expourense and director of Termatalia, Rogelio Martínez, and was attended by 25 experts from Spain and Portugal. The president of the Spanish Society of Medical Hydrology, Dr. Francisco Maraver, participated in this meeting; the president of the Spanish Association of the Spanish Wellness Spa Association, Alfredo Pérez; the manager of INORDE, Emma González; the head of the Tourism area of the Xunta de Galicia in Ourense, Cecilio Santalices; the Tourism technician of the Ourense City Council, Nita Torres; the general director of the Spanish Tourism Quality Institute, Fernando Fraile; the manager of the Galician Mineral and Thermal Water Cluster, Benigno Amor; the president of the Galician Thalassotherapy Society, Lourdes Mourelle; the technician of Tourism of Porto and North of Portugal, Cristina Mendes; the manager of the Caldaria Group, Javier Soto; the representative of the Ibero-American Association of Thermalism and Wellness, Antonio Freire; the representative of Peloids Termales, José Luis Legido; the director of the Chair of Medical Hydrology at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Juan Gestal; the head professor of the Thermalism Area of the Ourense Campus, Ana Torrado; the director of the Master’s Degree in Management and Planning of Internal Tourism and health at the University of Vigo, José Antonio Fraiz; the president of the Terras do Avia Tourist Association and Senator in the Health Commission, Francisco José Fernández; the director of the Eurocity of Chaves – Verín, Pablo Rivera; the researcher Marita Souto; the coordinator of Termas Centro de Portugal, Adriano Barreto, and the director of Administration of Expourense, Cristina Álvarez.
The Termatalia committee meeting took place this morning, precisely on the day that the Official State Gazette published the resolution by which the places for pensioners who wish to participate in the Thermalism Program are called, a total of 57,565 places to distribute in the different spas of Spain. A long-awaited piece of news for businessmen “that we had been waiting for a long time and that allows us to talk about the survival of the thermal sector”, said Javier Soto, manager of the Caldaria Group. During this meeting, the long-standing claim of professionals in the spa sector that thermal treatments be included in the portfolio of services of the Spanish Social Security, as is the case in other European countries, was also mentioned.
The members of this committee showed their full support, their commitment to the dissemination and their satisfaction with the implementation of actions that bring together the professionals of the sector around Termatalia, which is thus reaffirmed once again as an example of public cooperation. -private local, national and international to work for the development of thermalism worldwide. This Congress has the support of the Galician Tourism Agency, the Ourense Provincial Council and the Department of Tourism and Hydrotherapy of the Ourense City Council. In addition, it has the collaboration of the National Institute for Tourism Promotion of Argentina (INPROTUR), the GRD-12 Carballiño-Ribeiro, Tourism of Extremadura, Tourism of the Region of Murcia – Costa Cálida, the Chair of Medical Hydrology of the University of Santiago de Compostela and RENFE.
This Congress will be held in parallel and complementary to other Termatalia professional actions such as the Workshop specialized in Wellness Tourism, the mineral water specialization seminar or the 18th International Water Tasting.
The Congress program can be consulted at https://congreso.termatalia.com/programa