The Upper Engadin is getting a health festival. In September 2020, service providers from the hotel, catering, medical, sports and leisure industries will jointly launch healthy offers and events for guests and locals for the first time. “Vival — the Alpine Health Festival” is intended to strengthen health tourism in Engadin.
Initiators from the hotel, tourism, health and business sectors have founded the “Vival” association to organise a health festival in Engadin. “Vival — the Alpine Health Festival” is intended to bring together the topics of health and enjoyment and promote new offerings. Healthy offers and health and enjoyment events should show that a healthy lifestyle and healthy holidays can also be very enjoyable.
The new initiative was presented on Wednesday as part of the 5th “Health & Tourism” conference in Pontresina. The location is no coincidence; a year ago, lawyer and entrepreneur Dr. Christian Wenger made a flaming appeal for more initiative and innovation to Engadin tourism professionals, hoteliers and mountain railways.
Wenger is one of the founders of the Vival association, which also includes former St. Moritz spa director Hans Peter Danuser von Platen, long-standing spa association and tourism commission president Richard Dillier, “Health & Tourism” host Christian Gartmann, Santasana promoter Aja Hugentobler, hotelier Christoph M. Schlatter and the VR delegate of Klinik Gut, Dr. Adrian Urfer.
The Upper Engadin already has a large number of offers that combine health and pleasure, said the two Vival Co-Presidents Richard Dillier and Christoph M. Schlatter during their presentation. It is now time to make the offer more accessible to guests in the form of a festival and to launch new products.
Exploiting the potential of health tourism
“Health is not simply the absence of illness, but a person's overall well-being,” says doctor and Vival co-founder Dr. Adrian Urfer. “A healthy life can and should also be a pleasure.”
“Engadin once began as a health destination. The healing springs of St. Moritz were a center for drinking and spa treatments for guests from all over Europe more than 3400 years ago,” says Dr. Hans Peter Danuser from Platen. “All sorts of activities and finally winter sports were added later, and today the Engadin is also a destination for pleasure.”
“Vival brings the top performers in the Engadin together. This is very important, because only together can they strengthen the region's health position again,” adds Christian Gartmann, who has been organising the Health & Tourism conference since 2015. “It is good to see that concrete initiatives are emerging from the conference.”
The association wants to connect and encourage service providers from the various sectors of Engadin to make better use of their potential in the area of health services and to launch new packages together.
In addition to offers in hotels and restaurants as well as from sports and health providers, information events should also include the topics of health and enjoyment. The “Health & Tourism” conference is also to be held as part of the Health Festival from 2020.
“Vival — the Alpine Health Festival” is to be held for the first time in September 2020. The program is to be announced in spring 2020.
infos
Vival Association — the Alpine Health Festival
- Richard Dillier, Co-President: +41 76 352 14 83
- Christoph M. Schlatter, Co-President: +41 79 516 20 00
- Christian Gartmann, communication: +41 79 355 78 78