Rainer Mertel, spa director at Bad Neuenahr and chairman of Aktiengesellschaft Bad Neuenahr, was delighted. “We are very proud of this result”, he said in Bad Kreuznach as Bad Neuenahr took the top spot in a comparative review of (health) tourism at 158 spas and health resorts in seven German regions, including 19 others in Rhineland-Palatinate. The analysis, carried out by the European Tourism Institute, Trier (ETI) shows that visitors to Bad Neuenahr can expect the best overall quality. Herr Mertel said he was especially pleased that the honour should have come “on the eve of our anniversary year 2008”. He saw it as “recognition for our efforts over the past ten years” and also as a “challenge to continue the good work”.

Hendrik Hering, the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister for Economic Affairs said, “Rhineland-Palatinate and its two frontrunners, Bad Neuenahr and Bad Kreuznach, have achieved excellent positions in the overall top ten across all participating regions”. Bad Kreuznach was seventh overall in the interregional rankings (North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Thuringia and Saarland).

Herr Mertel said that the market for healthcare services is more lucrative than ever before. “If we are smart and position ourselves well now, and if we all exploit our local and regional specialisms, Rhineland-Palatinate's spas and health resorts will score highly with visitors”.

The review was based on 1,000 assessment criteria in 14 quality categories around the general theme of “quality in health tourism”. Considerations included the quality of advance information, quality of travel service, accessibility, quality of information in the resort, accommodation, food and drink, ease of getting around the resort, health and fitness facilities, other leisure facilities, culture and entertainment, attractive scenery, climate, medical spa expertise and treatments, and resort atmosphere.

Professor Dr. Heinz Quack, director of the European Tourism Institute, Trier (ETI), reported that Bad Neuenahr came top in all the assessment criteria. For instance, he said it had scored highly for its accessibility, its “feel-good atmosphere”, its medical expertise, the “potential of its natural therapeutic resources”, its pedestrian friendliness, its parks, its cultural scene and its well-advanced transformation from a resort focusing on traditional spa visits funded by health insurance companies into one offering privately-funded spa breaks, which included effective management and an excellent strategic policy.