with at least one employee, thereby offering 28,000 jobs, of which half are filled by commuters who come into town from surrounding areas. The economic structure is thus characterised mainly by small and medium enterprises, but also some big businesses like the tire manufacturer Michelin, the machine builder KHS, the Meffert Farbwerke (dyes, lacquers, plasters, protective coatings) and the Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH may be mentioned. In 2002, the tradition-rich Seitz-Filter-Werke was taken over by the US-based Pall Corporation. Thus producing businesses are of great importance, and are especially well represented by the chemical industry (tires, lacquers, dyes) and the optical industry as well as machine builders and automotive suppliers. Retail and wholesale dealers, as well as restaurants hold particular weight in the inner town, although in the last few years, the service sector, too, has been gaining in importance. The express road links to the Autobahn bring Bad Kreuznach closer to Frankfurt Airport. The town can also attract new investment with its economic conversion areas. Spa and tourism The spa operations and the wellness tourism also hold a special place for the town as the world's oldest radon-brine spa and the Rhineland-Palatinate centre for rheumatic care. Available in town are 2,498* beds for guests, which out of 449,756* overnight stays have seen 270,306* stays by guests in rehabilitation clinics. All together, the town was visited by 92,700 overnight guests (*as of 31 December 2010). Also available to the spa operations are six spa clinics, spa sanatoria, the thermal brine movement bath "Crucenia Thermen" with a salt grotto, a radon gallery, graduation towers in the Salinental (dale), the brine-fogger in the Kurpark (spa park) set up as open-air inhalatoria and the "Crucenia Gesundheitszentrum" ("Crucenia Health Centre") for ambulatory spa treatment. The indications for these treatments are for rheumatic complaints, changes in joints due to gout, degenerative diseases of the spinal column and joints, women's complaints, illnesses of the respiratory system, paediatric illnesses, vascular illnesses, non-infectious skin diseases, endocrinological dysfunctions, psychosomatic illnesses and eye complaints. After the noticeable decline in the spa business in the mid 1990s, there was a remodelling of the healing spa. At the Saunalandschaft bathhouse rose a "wellness temple" with 12 great saunas on an area of 4 000 m2, which receives roughly 80,000 visitors every year. Hospitals and specialised clinics In the hospital run by kreuznacher diakonie (397 beds) and the St. Marienwörth hospital (Franciscan