Significantly later than many other federal states, Bavaria is now also getting its first certified spa and medicinal forests. Bad Füssing, Bad Kötzting and Bad Wörishofen are the first communities to receive the newly developed “Forest Health Quality Seal” for medicinal and spa forests. The municipalities of Bad Alexandersbad, Bad Bayersoien, Bad Berneck, Bad Birnbach, Bad Neualbenreuth, Bad Reichenhall, Bischofsgrün, Pfronten, Treuchtlingen and Weißenstadt receive the certificate for Kurwald.
In other federal states, regions have been advertising with corresponding offers for years. “We all know that being in the forest is good for people. Forests play a very important role in health and well-being,” said Economics and Tourism Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) in Bad Wörishofen (Unterallgäu district). Forest therapy already has a long tradition in Asia. “We also want to use this potential in Bavaria and, with the designation of spa and medicinal forests, also integrate the positive effects of forests into conventional medical treatments.”
In the past three years, suitable forest areas for spa and medicinal forests in Bavaria have been identified by the Bavarian Health Spas Association and the Chair for Public Health and Health Services Research at the University of Munich. The spa forests serve guests for prevention, i.e. for the prevention of diseases. Healing forests are for sick patients and must, among other things, have rest and activity zones with therapy areas, meet high requirements for rest and air purity and be partly barrier-free.
Aiwanger emphasized that he hopes that more places will be on the way to certification in the future. “Forest health will be an important building block in the therapeutic spectrum, especially in health resorts and spas. Health tourism in Bavaria has a higher quality offer.” The conditions for forest health are optimal in the Free State: On the one hand, 36 percent of the state is covered with forest. On the other hand, with 47 spas and health resorts, Bavaria has the necessary medical and therapeutic expertise for practical implementation.