Germany’s renowned healing spas and health resort towns — long celebrated for therapeutic tourism and local economic vitality — are sounding the alarm over mounting financial hardships. With rising operational costs and limited financial capacity at the municipal level, many thermal baths are reportedly at risk of closing.
The warning was delivered by Brigitte Goertz-Meissner, president of the German Spa Association, during the annual conference held in Bad Frankenhausen, Thuringia.
A vital economic pillar for rural regions
Germany counts around 150 thermal baths operated by municipalities, many located in smaller communities that rely heavily on tourism linked to health and wellness. According to Goertz-Meissner, these facilities act as economic engines — sustaining hotels, restaurants, medical services and retail.
Their closure, she argues, would trigger far-reaching consequences well beyond the loss of a popular leisure offering.
Long-lasting pandemic damage and soaring costs
During the COVID-19 pandemic, forced closures created deep financial deficits that were never fully recovered. Today, thermal baths face rapidly increasing energy and personnel costs, pushing many to the limits of operational viability.
Small towns are particularly overwhelmed. Maintaining and modernising large spa infrastructure requires budgets many local authorities simply cannot provide.
550,000 jobs tied to the sector
The thermal bath and spa industry is a major employer — with an estimated 550,000 jobs linked directly or indirectly to health tourism. Demand for wellness, medical rehabilitation and preventative care continues to rise, making the current lack of investment support especially concerning.
Stakeholders fear that without immediate federal involvement, Germany risks losing critical capacity just as interest in health-focused travel grows.
“We were forgotten” in federal funding
A major source of frustration: thermal baths are excluded from a recently launched federal programme that provides €333 million for the renovation of municipal sports facilities — including conventional swimming pools, but not therapeutic spa complexes.
Goertz-Meissner criticises this policy as a serious oversight, arguing that spa towns should not be left out of strategic national investment. She calls for federal support packages tailored to the unique infrastructure demands of therapeutic facilities.
A crossroads for Germany’s spa tradition
Germany’s wellness tourism heritage stretches back centuries — a cultural and economic asset recognized far beyond national borders. Whether that tradition continues to thrive will depend heavily on decisions made in Berlin.
Industry representatives insist that modernisation cannot wait. Without fresh federal funding, the future of many thermal baths could slip into uncertainty, with losses felt first by rural regions that depend on them most.
