TRENDS
Spa Trends 2011
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ABOVE: One of Six Senses’ ‘Hosts’ who are on hand to help introduce spa guests to the local way of life BELOW: Produce is grown for the kitchens of Fairmont’s Royal York Hotel, Canada on the roof (top); cooking classes at the Canyon Ranch, US (bottom)
Local fl avour
Spas have long been trying to escape anonymity and facelessness, meeting an intensifying demand for authenticity refl ected in treatments, food, design and experiences indigenous to the spa’s unique place and culture. A maple scrub in Canada, organic food from the spa garden, facilities built of local stone… these are typical examples. But now spas are going hyper-local by adapting the ‘farm-to-table’ principle with farm-to-spa cuisine and farm-to-massage-table treatments. Fruits, herbs, honey and other ingredients are grown on-site and then dished up in both meals and skincare products. Hyper- local also means ramped-up community and philanthropic projects such as 100% locally sourced building materials or local staff hiring policies, and fi nding creative ways to connect with a sense of place and a feeling for nature. In this trend guests aren’t merely passive consumers of the experience. They’re out there gardening, farming, preparing their own food, making expeditions to local artisans and schools and even helping with wildlife rescues. A few years ago spas began to fl irt with local angles, but the new hyper-local facilities are locally embedded on almost every imaginable front. There are several good examples:
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●Hotel de la Paix, Siem Reap, Cambodia: Spa Indochine’s Khmer/Jamu beauty treatments use spa products made on-site daily, while the restaurants source ingredients from local farmers. Meanwhile, a programme of projects collectively called Cambodia Community engages guests with local sewing centres and orphanages
●Blancaneaux Lodge, Belize: one of three of Francis Ford Coppola’s hyper-local Central American spa lodges, built of local materials by local craftsmen. Organic gardens supply the restaurants and the spa – all staff sourced from local villages – while wide-ranging philanthropic efforts include protecting jaguars, conserving the Mayan forest and providing four-year scholarships to local students
●Masserio Torre Coccaro, Puglia, Italy: a 500-year- old farmhouse compound and spa built from local materials. The spa is carved out of a natural cave, while food and treatments draw upon gardens, orchards and the farm – evening spa treatments, for example, use fresh olives handpicked by guests that very morning
●Six Senses: eight resort spas from Thailand to Portugal all have extraordinary initiatives to harness local food, building and staff. At Six Senses Phuket, ‘farm’ doesn’t even have to make it to ‘table’ as guests can literally eat the landscaping
●The Farmhouse Inn & Spa, Forestville, California: this is the place that coined the phrase ‘farm-to- spa’, and in every meal and treatment the farm is intensely present
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