TERMATALIA URUGUAY

Nissi Spirit, Magma Original, Fontecelta and Auara, winning waters at the XIX International Water Tasting

Costa Rica and Colombia win the vast majority of World Coffee Challenge awards

The main international representatives of World Hydrology participated this afternoon in the first session of the Congress of the Society of Medical Hydrology that will continue this weekend in Laias.

Termatalia concludes its twentieth edition with the fulfilled objective of having become the international meeting point for health tourism professionals after the pandemic. A complete and face-to-face fair that brought together 140 exhibitors from 25 countries and received 6,300 visits positioning Ourense as a world epicentre of thermalism to be held in parallel and complementary with two other major professional events such as the International Congress of Thermal Tourism that concluded yesterday or the XXI National Congress of Medical Hydrology that began this afternoon in Expourense and continues throughout the weekend at the Balneario de Laias bringing together doctors from all over Spain who will listen to the world references in Medical Hydrology.

XIX International Water Tasting

On this second day of Termatalia 2022, the awards of the XIX International Water Tasting, a prestigious competition highly valued by mineral water bottling companies, were presented. It was once again directed by the Galician sommelier Mercedes González and had a jury made up of professionals from Spain, Portugal, France and Brazil. The winning waters were:

-Very weakly mineralised water category. First prize for NISSI SPIRIT from Costa Rica.

-Mineral water with natural gas category. First prize for MAGMA ORIGINAL, from Galicia.

-Mineral water with added gas category. First prize for FONTECELTA, from Galicia.

-Medium mineral water category. There were three prizes:

-First prize: Fontecelta – Galicia.

-Second prize: Gloria Patri – Azores (Portugal).

-Third prize: Auara. Company based in Madrid that belongs to the Hijos de Rivera Group.

The jury also awarded the prize for “Business Policy in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environment” to Auara, a social enterprise that donates 100% of its dividends to projects aimed at providing access to drinking water for people in developing countries. The award for Innovative Packaging also went to AUARA, as it is a 100% recycled and recyclable packaging with a Braille label.During this second and last day of Termatalia, the prizes of the World Coffee Challenge were awarded, a competition organised by the French company Alternative Café, which brought together 75 participating samples from 15 countries. More than 30 prizes were awarded in the different categories (Arabica Washed, Arabica Honey, Arabica Honey, Arabica Natural, Arabica Natural Infusion, Blend, Espresso Arabica, Espresso Blend, Women’s Coffee, Organic Coffee, Innovative Coffee, Sustainable Coffee and Farm Coffee). Costa Rica with 5 first prizes and Colombia with 4 were the countries that received the most awards, followed by Ecuador and Brazil (You can consult all the awards on the competition website https://www.worldcoffeechallenge.com/).

Also presented during this second day was the TERMAGAL project, which brings together the common electronic medical records of the spas in Galicia. It was a project initiated years ago, which had been truncated, and now thanks to Caldaria Termal, saw the light after its reworking by the company Trileuco Solutions. Its implementation in all spas will mean a very important advance in balneotherapy in Galicia by allowing to have an archive of thermal clinical histories elaborated based on the same criteria that will allow the realization of future investigations. This project was presented at the stand of the Provincial Council of Ourense with the participation of the director of the Galician Tourism Agency, Nava Castro.

As part of the programme of professional technical conferences, a round table was held today to analyse water from a legal perspective. It also included a presentation on new trends in the management of water, energy and minerals in balneotherapy, with the collaboration of Aqualia. Within the presentations related to tourism, there were presentations of thermal destinations such as Uruguay, during which his Deputy Minister of Tourism, Remo Mozeglio, confirmed the interest of his country to host Termatalia 2023. Also presented were the Viles Termals de Catalunya and the Region of Murcia, which also included a presentation of the Archena Thermal City Council, which for the first time participated in the fair independently.

Termatalia also became an educational framework for the hundreds of students from different vocational training centres in Galicia and Portugal who visited the fair, including students from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Santiago de Compostela.

Two intense days of activity that have meant the reunion of institutional representatives, businessmen and professionals of the thermal sector from 25 countries.

The next Expourense trade fair event will take place next week with the sixth edition of the International Antiques Fair, Antiq Auria, from 7 to 9 October.