Sport and Health as INnovative INitiatives for the Growth of Mountains
Healthcare and wellness have recently become dynamic sectors of the tourism economy and are characterised by high expansion rates. Particularly mountain regions are well suited as potential destinations for healthcare and wellness tourism. The SHINING Mountains project involves partners from mountain regions located in Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece and Slovakia who want to extend or introduce healthcare and wellness services to their tourism economy. The aim of the project is to stimulate the indigenous potentials of mountain regions to strengthen the business environment and to promote a diversified development strategy. Starting from a theoretical approach and an EU benchmarking network, the project will introduce specific managerial tools for the strategic planning and management of healthcare and wellness in mountain regions. Afterwards, it will concentrate on operative tools which will enable concrete health and wellness activities in the project regions to be implemented. The tools are applied to pilot areas, which are former partners of a CADSES transnational circuit of "high quality wellness and health destinations". The application of this model to destinations in different mountain regions of the CADSES area will enable the model to be generalised as a reference experience for the whole of the EU.