Imserso opens its 2027 spa programme with 199,000 places

--- The context --- Imserso, the Institute for Older People and Social Services attached to the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, manages two well-established reduced-price programmes: the Tourism Programme and the Thermalism Programme. Their purpose is twofold: to serve as a complementary Social Security provision that improves older people's health and quality of life, and to maintain employment and activity during the low season. Continuity is one of its hallmarks. Tourism began in 1985 with 16,000 places and now approaches 900,000 per season, while thermalism has operated since 1989 with preventive and rehabilitative treatments at affordable prices. More than 90% of tourism programme users rate it positively and two thirds repeat year after year, according to an Imserso survey from 2023. --- The facts --- On 5 November 2026 the application window opens for the 2027 Thermalism Programme, with 199,000 places arranged with thermal establishments across Spain, between February and December, in stays of 10 days with 9 overnight stays on a full-board basis. Each stay includes a medical examination on arrival to prescribe the treatment, the thermal treatment prescribed by the medical staff, medical follow-up, free leisure activities, and an insurance policy. The deadlines are ordered by stay period: for stays from February to August, applications may be submitted from 5 November until 5 December 2026, and for stays from September to December, until 12 May 2027. The waiting list accepts entries until 11 May 2027 for the first block and until 31 October 2027 for the second. The recommended route is the online one, through the Imserso electronic headquarters, with no electronic authentication needed to access the application, with the alternative of the downloaded form presented at registries, offices or a post office box. The 2026-2027 Tourism Programme puts 879,213 places on the table: peninsular coastal tourism accounts for 50.1%, with 440,284 places and stays of 10 and 8 days in Catalonia, Andalusia, the Region of Murcia and the Valencian Community; island coastal tourism adds 25.9%, with 228,142 places and stays of 10 and 8 days in the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands; and getaways represent 23.9%, with 210,787 places and stays of 4, 5 and 6 days on cultural circuits, nature tourism, provincial capitals and Ceuta and Melilla. The package includes accommodation and, with some exceptions, transport, and on the coast it adds complementary health care and sociocultural entertainment. The price range runs from 132.91 euros for 4 days in provincial capitals in the low season to 564.72 euros for 10 days in the Canary Islands with transport in the high season. New features include a reduced fare of 50 euros, with 7,447 places for pensioners whose benefit is equal to or lower than the non-contributory disability or retirement pensions, and a percentage of places for travelling with pets on peninsular and island coastal trips, in accordance with the rules and the care those animals require. --- The positions --- The design rewards order and foresight: accreditation, scoring and staggered purchasing calendars avoid improvisation. For tourism, the criteria are age, disability status, economic circumstances, participation in previous years and large-family status. For thermalism, applicants must additionally be able to manage the basic activities of daily life by themselves, genuinely need the treatments and have no medical contraindication, so that each place goes to someone who can use it and needs it. Support for the productive fabric is part of the same approach. Tourism is contracted through a public tender and benefits the hotel sector, restaurants, transport, travel agencies, retail and leisure, while thermalism strengthens rural territory in the low season. Participants may travel with their spouse or with the person with whom they maintain an analogous relationship, and also with children with disabilities. --- What remains unknown --- The ordinary accreditation window for tourism in 2026/2027 opened on 22 June 2026 and closed on 10 July 2026, and people accredited in previous seasons do not need to repeat the process. Imserso has sent 2,938,156 letters to the 4,602,255 accredited people, with the four digits, different each season, that allow trips to be booked or bought. Sales of the trips began from 14 September, with a calendar by autonomous community and by preferential or non-preferential user status on 14 and 15 September for a first group of territories and on 16 and 17 September for the rest. The information telephone line 912 667 713 answers queries from Monday to Friday, from 09:00 to 18:00. The distribution of the 199,000 thermal places among spas is not yet detailed, nor is the specific number of places that will admit pets. --- Unanswered questions --- Will the 199,000 places in the 2027 Thermalism Programme be filled within the ordinary deadlines, or will the waiting list carry real weight? How will the reservation of places for travellers with pets be put into practice at each spa and each coastal hotel? Will the next season maintain a volume close to 900,000 tourism places? --- EPM analysis --- Few public policies show comparable continuity: four decades of travel and more than three of thermalism, with stable rules, published prices and demand that renews itself every year. The practical key to this call is respecting the calendar, because the first thermal deadline closes on 5 December 2026 and governs the February to August stays. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the value of Imserso lies in its predictability: counted places, known prices, clear requirements and a calendar that rewards those who organise themselves in time. The 199,000 thermal places for 2027 and the 879,213 tourism places sustain at once older people's health and employment in hotels, spas and rural territories during the months of least activity. The 50-euro fare, tightly limited to pensioners with the fewest resources, adds a criterion of fairness without disordering the whole. Meeting the deadlines will be, as always, the first condition for travelling.

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