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A Contemporary topic

The unity of health, physical beauty and mental fitness have always been in the centre of people’ notion of an ideal life. It was early in history that the necessity of an appropriate lifestyle was recognized as precondition to achieve that aim. (Fóris Á.–Bérczes E. 2006). At the same time there are technology- and urbanization-related changes affecting people’s lives – especially physical inactivity and stress – that negatively influence people’s spheres of life and their health. (It was not by accident that the pharmaceutical industry could become extremely successful in the economy of the second half of the 20th century.) It was only at the end of the millenium that the questions of physical and mental health, the idea of the wholeness of life began to gain momentum, meaning, that physical activity, recreation, spiritual revitalization, mental regeneration and the traditional and modern branches of medicine got intertwined. This value is closely linked to the idea of the necessity of being successful in the modern world: people’s success in their career as well as in their private lives is largely dependent on their health, neatness and fitness. (Hustiné Béres K. 2011).

Despite the fact that in the past people travelled for health reasons, too, patients then sought recovery near their homes. These days technological development has broadened society’s possibilties for mobility, thus travel has been made easy and the spatial mobility of people has increased. (Haggett, P. 2006). All these features have made it possible for people to leave their everyday lives behind every now and then, and find those features elsewhere which are thought to have been missing when being at home. In a paradoxical way people have to turn into tourists to recover from their illnesses and then return home as healthy and relaxed persons.

Parallelly with all these changes the economic sector was gradually realizing that health tourism has a lot of economic benefits. It has become evident that people in our modern age are willing to spend more and more money on services that make it possible for them to spend their vacation and/or free time actively or just relax in a healthy environment. At the same time there are several cases when one can also find economic motives behind health tourism, since many people travel because they may have access to cheaper medical treatments abroad. (Fenyvesi J. 2010).

The spatial mobility of patients and of those healthy people who wished to preserve their health, gained a special significance in the second half of the 20th century.  In the opinion of tourism experts it is health tourism that shows the fastest growth within the tourism sector in the 21st century. This growth is intensified by the demographical situation of developed countries, namely, the fact that the 50+ age group, which is the most willing to travel for health reasons, are increasingly becoming active travellers. Quality assurance as well as the improvement of the conditions of medical treatments and of the places of treatments of rehabilitation are of utmost importance for all ageing societies. On the other hand it is a general tendency in societies that people are becoming more and more health-conscious, meaning, that they want to prevent illnesses and preserve their good health. Thus the target market for health tourism services is growing and the aspect of prevention is becoming more and more emphatic. (Lőrinc K.– Michalkó G. 2011). Due to these characteristics it has become evident that the interest of the younger generations in health tourism has intensified, especially in its new and fashionable forms. (Sándor R. 2011). The growing significance of this branch of tourism is seen in the fact that in Hungary every third guest night is spent in a medical wellness hotel.(Boros Sz. et al.  2011).