Thermae et Ludus: the beginning of the health tourism in Brazil and in the world

Abstract

For a long time, the spas, the ranches and the watering places invested in a relation that marked the society profoundly: the baths and the game. These two activities cohabited - and still cohabit in lots of countries - harmoniously from the summit of the Roman Empire to Belle Époque of the European tourism. ln Brazil, sumptuous hotels-casinos allied to the treatments with water, received the new bourgeoisie geared to the health and the entertainment. With the prohibition of the game in the country, these enterprises needed restructure to survive, some without success. However the return of thermalism and the casinos in the majority of the countries of the world reopens the discussions and polemics concerning the role of the game in Brazil and its relations with the tourist activity, deprived of new segments to compete with already consolidated markets.