Medical and health tourism is one of the most ancient types of tourism industry. Since ancient times people have learned to use mineral waters and therapeutic muds for therapeutic purposes. Among the most ancient (Bronze Age) material evidence of treatment with mineral waters are the ruins of capital structures on the springs of carbonic water in the vicinity of the modern Swiss resort of St. Moritz.
The ruins of similar constructions of the period of Roman rule are preserved in different modern resorts of Romania, on the coast of Lake Balaton in Hungary, Baden in Switzerland and Austria, Wiesbaden in Germany, Exleben in France. In Italy, especially in Latium and on the coast of the Gulf of Naples, there were numerous spas with mineral springs. The resort of Baia with terraced thermae, which was a favorite resting place of the Roman nobility, was very famous.
In the early Middle Ages the famous spas were Plom bier Le Ben and Aachen. Later on, the mineral springs of Spa and Cotre became famous, and the glory of the Abano Terme springs, known since antiquity, was revived. In the middle of the XIV century the spa of Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary) was founded. At the beginning of the XIV century Baden Baden became an actively visited resort.
At the beginning of the XVII century in France, a spa inspectorate was established to supervise the state of spas and their operation. At the same time, the use of spas continued to be an exclusive privilege of the nobility. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. begins the intensive development of European resorts on the basis of commercial approach. Revitalization of the spa business was accompanied by the expansion of the circle of their visitors at the expense of representatives of the bourgeoisie, officials and intellectuals.
Currently, the spa business is best developed in France (more than 100 health centers), Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. Significant successes in the development of health resort business made Israel, which turned the Dead Sea into a world-famous center of resortology.
In 1958, the International Federation of Spa Work was founded. Initially its tasks were social problems of resort business and organization of sanatorium and resort assistance to the disabled of the Second World War. Later on, a real spa industry emerged.