Giovanni Gurnari · Vice President of World Federation of Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy and Leader of Technical & Scientific Commission | An Infinite Source of Quality for Health: the Mountain Environment

EDITOR'S NOTE: On May 29 2021, the main activity of the third International Mountain Tourism Day—the World Heritage Famous Mountain (Jinfo Mountain) Summit kicked off in Nanchuan District, Chongqing Municipality, China successfully. Themed with “World Heritage Protection and Green Development of Mountain Tourism”, the Summit got strong support from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the Global Tourism Economy Forum (GTEF), the Internationale Organisation Für Volkskunst (IOV) and the China Association of National Parks and Scenic Sites. As an important sub-event of this summit, the International Seminar on Mountain and Hot Spring Wellness Tourism was held with top experts and scholars at home and abroad. They gave keynote speeches and shared frontier observations focusing on mountain tourism, hot spring tourism, and health tourism to explore "the integrated development of hot spring wellness, climate wellness, forest wellness and mountain tourism". The speeches will be released in succession to share with industry colleagues.

Giovanni Gurnari, Vice President of World Federation of Hydrotherapy and Climatotherapy and Leader of Technical & Scientific Commission delivered an online speech at International Seminar on Mountain and Hot Spring Wellness Tourism:

I would like to thank the organization of this event and in particular the Government Authorities of Chongqing and the friends of the Asia Pacific Institute for Hydrotheraphy and Climatheraphy Tourism. I sincerely wish to congratulate the International Mountain Tourism Alliance for promoting wellness in the water in a mountain environment.

In this sector the possibilities for development are still enormous and present many interesting aspects not only for classic tourism, but above all for health tourism. The mountain environment has always been synonymous with psycho-physical well-being, quality of health. The mountains are generally characterized by enchanting landscapes, by a very good air quality, by an environment generally rich in natural resources such as water, forest and greenery that are largely uncontaminated. But there is also a particular condition: with altitude, the human spirit approaches Heaven and in common thought it rises close to the supernatural. This spontaneous feeling, emotion, immediately makes man feel better and the search for balance between psyche and body turns into a psychosomatic state of well-being, of relaxation and peace with ourselves. If you have a water facility, such as a swimming pool or a pond where you can immerse yourself, our whole being finds the utmost comfort. From this particular moment of life we always come out very enriched and our body also benefits significantly.

In fact, the enrichment in oxygen, hydration with pure water, the environmental context favor functional processes up to strengthening our immune defenses. If the principles of Forest Therapy are followed, the benefits will be available for a long time. But mountain tourism and in particular the use of hydrotherapy requires a lot of attention. In fact it is necessary to remember that the environment of this type is particularly fragile and anthropogenic pressure could damage it irreversibly. We must therefore pay close attention to the development of sustainable activities that on the one hand enhance the objectively unique qualities of this environment and on the other preserve its truly precious resources.

The planning of services and structures to favor the processes of sustainable tourism must in fact consider the need to safeguard the existing natural quality level. It is therefore necessary to adopt a completely different approach in the planning and construction of structures and related services. These must be in full harmony with the protection of the quality of the environment and the prevention and care of the personal health for each of us. All with the utmost respect for natural resources.

All aspects that require particular expertise and extreme attention to detail, even to small needs that in other environments, less fragile or already compromised, are normally neglected. In this case, the use of technology, for example, becomes strategic. The use of “green” criteria is a must, while environmental prevention remains a point of reference that cannot be overcome. Energy from renewable sources, such as water saving, reduction of pollution an total control of production of waste materials must be the object of very high attention and planning. There can be no compromises here. The choice of materials, techniques, volumes, colors and shapes and volume must be made considering on the one hand the utmost respect for the environment (eco-sustainability) and on the other hand the enhancement of resources for well-being and healthy purposes according to well-defined protocols. The potentials are enormous, but there are also many criticalities: a comparison between Western and Eastern methods and systems is therefore essential to find the right balance in defining the criteria of wellness.

As everyone knows, WHO recommends the integration of conventional medicine and traditional medicine, but for the mountain environment it is essential to identify the best criteria to be adopted case by case, site by site. These criteria will be a function of various parameters: altitude, morphology, type and intensity of forest and greenery, geological components, water springs and their characteristics, hydrographic pattern, roads and accesses, energy sources, anthropic weight and human activities, flora and fauna to be conserved, constraints landscaping, socio-economic components, natural resources and the possibility of developing tourism to teach environmentally sustainable circularity.

Creating structures for wellness is not difficult，creating structures for quality well-being, with scientific evidence and high content in terms of health and hygiene prevention is, on the other hand, very complex. Even more difficult when operating in a context that requires environmental impact assessments and at the same time the adoption of extremely correct and objectively valid protocols relating to human health.

By adopting valid evaluation criteria and using the best of knowledge and experience in the various applications, the maximum socio-economic benefit will be obtained from health tourism that respects the quality of life and the environment that supports it. Congratulations for every initiative relating to the promotion of sustainable mountain tourism, where wellness in the water becomes a great opportunity to improve the quality of health of each person. But all this can translate into an increase in culture for the environment and in particular for the resource of water, natural assets that cannot be renounced as they are limited. The more you know these elements, the greater the respect and conservation of their value.