COMPANY PROFILE: YTL HOTELS
RHIANON HOWELLS » CONSULTING EDITOR » SPA BUSINESS
KEEPING TRADITION ALIVE
YTL Hotels has built a global reputation as a provider of authentic Asian spa experiences. With a new property in Japan and three more planned for Malaysia, the company is taking its spa strategy to the next level
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t’s been less than a decade since Malaysia-based YTL Hotels opened its first Spa Village on Pangkor Laut, its private island resort off the coun- try’s west coast. But since then, its
spa division has gone from strength to strength, with five Spa Villages in Malay- sia and one Spa Village Resort in Bali, plus a number of other spas. Widely associated with delivering luxuri-
ous, authentic spa experiences using local ingredients and traditions, the core brand is so well established that when Shangri-La
used the phrase ‘Spa Village’ to describe one of its new CHI spa sites a couple of years ago, YTL Hotels’ VP spa division, Chik Lai Ping, only had to let Shangri-La, know for the problem to quietly go away. Te company’s focus on spa shows no signs
of slowing, with two new boutique launches in Japan and France and three resort and spa openings in the pipeline. So what’s driving this growth? And what is the philosophy at the heart of the Spa Village brand?
SPA ATTRACTION Founded in 1955, by Malaysian businessman Yeoh Tiong Lay, YTL Corporation started life as a small construction firm, but quickly grew and diversified before being listed on the Bursa Malaysia in 1985. Today, the com- pany comprises six listed entities worldwide and has a combined market capitalisation of myr35.9bn (us$11.9bn, €8.4bn, £7.4bn). YTL Hotels was set up in 1991, and the spa
division soon followed. With the luxury mar- ket zeitgeist pointing firmly in this direction and demand on the rise, adding spas was an obvious next step, explains Chik, who has 20 years’ experience in the hospitality industry. Pangkor Laut Resort, built by YTL on a pri- vately owned island in 1985 and relaunched under its current name in 1994, was earmarked as the perfect location for the first spa. In 1997, renowned US spa consultant Sylvia
Sepielli was brought on board to help with concept development and planning for the new spa (see sb05/2 p108). Two years later, YTL Hotels bought the JW Marriott Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, where Chik had already set up a successful spa. Following the acquisition, she was invited to work alongside Sepielli. Together, they developed a village-style spa
Pangkor Laut’s Malay and Chinese Bath House Ritual incorporates inhalation therapy in its six steps
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concept for the Pangkor Laut Resort featur- ing eight treatment pavilions, three healing huts, two bath houses, three spa huts, three nap gazebos and a spa boutique, as well as 22 residential spa villas. Significantly, the spa would focus not only on pampering, but would harness the ingredients and healing practices of the region’s rich local cultures: Malay, Chinese and Indian, as well as draw- ing on other Asian traditions, including those from Bali, Tailand and Japan. “We really wanted to promote a continuation of tradi- tional healing methods,” explains Chik.
SPA BUSINESS 3 2011 ©Cybertrek 2011
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