In 2014, spa-school and water R&D laboratory protocols are being signed with universities and other entities from Galicia and Portugal in order to establish part- nerships to deploy vocational programs as wellas research. As the teaching will take place in both countries, it is expected that curriculums will be complementary in the long run, which will allow diplomas with double degrees.
An example of a complementary input that capitalises on water and which doesn’t come directly from the Eurocity itself, but benefi ts it anyway, comes from universities. CETRAD, a multidisciplinary research centre of the University of Trás-os-Montes, organised an international conference on sustainable health and wellness destinations in October 2011 in Chaves, producing, among other outcomes, an e-book on Sustainable Medical and Wellness Destinations (Joukes et al. 2013 ) . A spin-off of the Faculty of Pharmaceutics of the University of Porto, Inovapotek – Pharmaceutical Research and Development, is working on transforming the hot spring water of Chaves into dermatological products (Termas 2013 ).
The projects targeted in the last paragraphs all have a deep bond with research and education. It is not the intention of this text to evaluate how this is put into prac- tice; what we want to stress here is that the Eurocity, the regions, the countries and the institutions, namely the higher education institutions, should be attentive to their role in regional development, subscribing and actively supporting these and other projects which include education and research as pillars of development. If the ECV strategic plan (integrating education and research) does not succeed, the whole rationale of the Eurocity may simply fall apart.
This chapter concentrates on natural mineral water, but there is another type of water which is very prominent in the territory: rivers and streams. The Tâmega River is central for the Eurocity, but, so far, actions to valorise it, including its effl u- ents, have not yet reached a satisfactory level. In the case that efforts to seriously improve the Tâmega River water quality are not determined enough and do not suc- ceed, the situation may provoke serious hindrances. This is a serious weakness, reinforced by the fact that the jurisdiction over the rivers is parked in central govern- ment organisations that do not always converge with local ones.
On the other hand, combining spa, health/medical and wellness services with endogenous resources such as water, nature, patrimony, culture and history for the creation of different kinds of tourism products is rather usual and, thus, expectable.
ECV, however, adds two innovative elements to this process: education and research.
Professional education and research guarantee not only the maintenance of high quality levels in services, but also the commercialisation of scientifi cally obtained results, two essential factors to position the Eurocity of Water as a distinguished tourism destination and particularly as a good practice example in the health and wellness tourism branch, as well as for professional development in the spa sector.
We can only applaud this sustainable long-term thinking; even more so when they try to be a third generation project, putting Euro-citizenship in fi rst place, and while they are slowly but steadily implementing into the territory what was prom- ised on paper, including both modest and audacious “water-items”.
It is our view that education and research – which is the “smart approach” – have the potential to give an essential contribution to the success of this Eurocity of Water. We should remember, though, that the present analysis is focused on the conception level of the projects and that future analysis should investigate at another level – the level of implementation.
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M. Peris-Ortiz, J. Álvarez-García (eds.), Health and Wellness Tourism, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-11490-3_5