INTERVIEW ANDREA JEZOVIT » JOURNALIST » SPA BUSINESS
Christopher Norton
It’s an exciting time for the chair of Four Seasons’ global spa task force – the chain has 50 new hotels, all with spas, set to open in the next fi ve years. But how do you guide the development of so many spas around the world? The hotelier turned spa expert tells all
T
hough he chairs the spa development task force for Four Seasons, Christopher Norton still fancies him- self as more of a hotel man. “Originally, my calling and career is as a hotelier,” he says. “I work with lots of people who technically are great spa experts, some
who have spent their whole lives studying the discipline. Some are brilliant and are better technicians than I will ever be.” But talk to Norton about spas, and you can hear his passion. Ask
him for his favourite spa, and he’ll give four diff erent answers (see p24). Ask him about his favourite treatment, and he’ll name two. He speaks of past Four Seasons projects like a proud father, and excit- edly tells the story of the best spa experience he ever had: a tantric ayurvedic massage at the Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Landaa Giraavaru, a spa he helped create. “T ey’re more rituals than they are massages. T ere’s a very talented senior spa director there, and it was a fantastic experience – it’s the only time that I’ve literally had a con- scious out-of-body experience, and it’s happened to me twice at that spa.” A post-elephant ride herbal poultice treatment in the peaceful jungle surroundings of the spa at Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle, T ailand, he quickly adds, is a close second. Spa development makes up only a small part of Norton’s duties
– based in Paris, he’s regional vice-president overseeing the Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris, the Four Seasons Resort Provence, the Four Seasons Hotel Doha in Qatar and the Four Seasons Riyadh in Saudi Arabia; he’s also the George V’s general manager. Norton estimates he only spends about an hour a day on spa task force duty. But the role is still a major responsibility – established in 1960 and now with 83 properties (nearly all with spas) around the world, Four Seasons is a major brand – and the chain has 50 more hotels set to open in the next fi ve years, all with spas. T ough Norton won’t be closely involved with each new spa personally, he’s overseeing the direction of spas for the chain at an important time.
Although Norton would describe his original calling as a hotelier, he is deeply passionate about spa operations and development
20 Read Spa Business online
spabusiness.com / digital
A HOTELIER BY CALLING Fiſt y-two-year-old Norton – who was born in the US and raised in Switzerland – fi rst became interested in hotels at age 14, through a friend with a hotelier father; he sought out an apprenticeship at Hôtel Baur au Lac in Switzerland, and began his career in the US at hotels in Atlanta, Boca Raton and New York. It was at the Water- gate Hotel in Washington DC in the mid-1980s that Norton was exposed to his fi rst spa development. “It was one of those older set- ups where you had a swim club and some gymnastics and one or two little rooms in the back where a big hairy man would massage peo- ple aſt er the workout,” he says. “We took that apart and renovated,
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