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Sabrina and Jesper Hougaard
th HOUGAARDS e
Ten years ago, Jesper Hougaard and his wife Sabrina chose India as the inspiration for their spa concept, Serena Spas. Having enjoyed great success, their next step is to persuade and help the Indian government set spa training standards
J
esper Hougaard is Danish. He’s also very funny. Ask him how he ended up mar- rying his wife Sabrina, and he says that, having first
hired her to set up the recruitment of staff for his spas, “it soon became more econom- ical to marry her than to pay her a salary”! Serena Spas was established by Jesper in
2000 as a turnkey solution for resort own- ers who either didn’t know anything about running a spa or wanted an independent operator to do it for them. Previously managing director of Maldi-
vian Air Taxi, one of the world’s largest sea plane airlines, Hougaard had been based
in Malé, the capital, since 1994. On a small island where everyone knows everyone else, he had built himself a robust reputation as a successful businessman. In 2000, the airline invested money in a
resort and luxury spa on Malé, and Hou- gaard became involved in its management. He says he immediately saw the rewards of working in the spa market. “T ere’s no industry where you get closer to your guests and get immediate feedback about whether what you’re doing for them is good or bad.”
AN INDIAN LOVE AFFAIR At the time, Hougaard’s two children from his fi rst marriage were in boarding school
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in India. During his frequent travels to visit them, Jesper became interested in ayurveda and he says this was the catalyst for devel- oping his own resort spa concept. With perfect Nordic confi dence, Jesper
claims that “although T ai and Balinese spa concepts are wonderful, they belong to T ailand and Bali and they don’t belong any- where else.” He wanted something to suit the location, heritage and native ingredients of India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka, which is why he homed in on Indian wellness. “Serena Spa is more about pampering than
ayurveda, which is not really a spa concept,” says Jesper. “It’s a curative and hospital con- cept and is not really suited to week-long tourism. We do not pretend to cure any- thing, we’re just for relaxation.” In 2000, Hougaard gave up his job at
the airline, and won a contract to own and operate his fi rst Serena Spa in T udufushi, a Maldivian resort. What he designed became the template for all Serena Spas – it included antique wooden Indian furniture and treat- ment products made in India using native ingredients. T e spa menu was a mixture of ayurvedic massages and traditional Indian and Maldivian body and facial therapies.
SPA BUSINESS 4 2010 ©Cybertrek 2010
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