Gran Canaria Tourist Guide

Gran Canaria welcomed its first tourists towards the end of the 19 th century, when people travelled over from the United Kingdom to the island, seduced by the generosity of its climate and the incredible curative properties of its waters. The period of transformation society underwent during the Second Industrial Revolution in Europe made the most thoughtful individuals search for a solution to the problems derived from the pollution and the economic and demographic changes that were happening. With heart and lung desease rife at this time, people’s skin and bones found cures in the now extinct spas of Azuaje and Los Berrazales, highy popular at the time. Those incipient health expeditions planted the seed of an activity taken on board by Eduardo Filiputti, the creator of a heliotherapy centre in the 1960s right next to the Maspalomas Dunes, considered the precursor to today’s extensive range of establishments specializing in body care and relaxation that exist in Gran Canaria. The island now has Spa and Wellness centres managed by professionals who specialize in wellbeing and health and beauty. Treatments with seaweed, sea mud, hydrotherapy, salt baths, aromatherapy, thalassotherapy, massages and Turkish baths are just a few of the alternative therapies available to visitors to relieve aches and pains, stress and boredom.

Health Tourism 17

GRAN CANARIA SPA, WELLNESS & HEALTH ASSOCIATION

(+34) 928 367 508 / Fax: (+34) 928 369 300

info@grancanariawellness.com www.grancanariawellness.com

82

83

LEISURE GUIDE OF GRAN CANARIA