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Peninsula Hot Springs is a member of the Global Hot Springs Forum alongside representatives from New Zealand, USA, France, Japan, Mexico and Peru.

During the 2014 Global Spa and Wellness Summit in Morocco, an expert panel identified that geothermal springs operators worldwide were calling for more research in the burgeoning $50 billion industry. Past research has primarily focused on balneotherapy, while a fundamental understanding of who visits hot springs and the purpose for their visits has not been captured.

With this in mind, Peninsula Hot Springs has made an industry-leading commitment to international geothermal health and wellness tourism research.

Peninsula Hot Springs partnered with RMIT University’s School of Health and Biomedical Sciences for an innovative Victorian study exploring the characteristics, motivations and experiences of people bathing at Peninsula Hot Springs.

The ‘Indulgence or Therapy’ research is a first for Victoria. RMIT received more than 4000 responses to an online survey with results published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research in March 2017.

RMIT University performed a cross-sectional observational study through an online Qualtrics survey with 4,265 mostly female respondents that involved descriptive statistics, which aimed to describe trends around respondents’ characteristics, motivations and experiences to Australia’s largest commercial hot spring.

Analysis revealed that “relaxation,” “peace and tranquility,” “indulgence” and “escape” were the most important motivators for bathing.Most respondents reported general health benefits (98%) and better sleep (82%) from bathing. One third of respondents also had medical conditions. Significant benefits were reported for back pain, arthritis, stress and anxiety, depression and insomnia.

These results suggest that while relaxation is currently the major driver of hot spring visitation, balneotherapy warrants consideration from Australian health practitioners and insurers as a complementary therapy.