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www.spaopportunities.com Baumgarten: spa sector must unite Ellis said the new institute will launch in 2014
Ellis announces plans for a GSWS umbrella institute
Te formation of a non-profit umbrella organisation for the global spa and wellness industries could be on the cards according to GSWS chair emeritus Pete Ellis. He said that an independent organisa-
tion – the Global Wellness Institute – is needed to help attract investment/funding from outside the industry to support future growth opportunities for the sector. While the annual summit will stay as it
is – an invite-only gathering of top levels executives to shape the future of the indus- try – a Global Wellness Institute, could help to fund industry research, regional events and direct outreach to consumers. The next step is for the GSWS board
members to “flesh out” the idea. Ellis sug- gested that there’s a strong possibility for it to strategically align itself with the wellness tourism sector, an arena that “benefits the [spa] operators and the [product, service and equipment] supply companies.”
India’s IHM-A wins Student Challenge Competition
Tree pupils from the Institute of Hotel Management, Aurangabad (IHM-A) in India were awarded first place in the GSWS’s fiſth Student Challenge Competition. Te team, who were tasked with creating
an Indian spa concept and design worthy of a global rollout, stood out for two reasons. “We saw great social responsibility and that they made an effort to reach out to rural India [for their workforce],” said Cornell professor Mary Tabacchi, who moderated the competition. “We could also see a poten- tial partnership with the Indian government in terms of delivering healthcare,” she said. In second place was the Indian School
of Business, Hyderabad; and in third place was the University of Delhi. ESPA’s Susan Harmsworth, also a mod-
erator for the competition, praised all contenders who took part for the “quality of presentations, which were all brilliant.”
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Speaking at the first Wellness Tourism Congress in New Delhi on 5 October, Jean- Claude Baumgarten, former president of the World Travel and Tourism Council , explained to delegates how the travel and tourism indus- try originally co-ordinated efforts to promote the profile of the sector to governments by proving it represented 10 per cent of GDP and 11 per cent of employment. Baumgarten said the well-
ness tourism sector and the spa sector should unite and employ the same tactics: “Te sectors need to decide the key messages they want to convey – keep it simple and focus on top line num- bers – things like GDP. Ten use the power of the combined spa and wellness tourism com- munities to spread the word. Everyone in the industry must be on-message in quoting these numbers at every opportunity, at every press briefing, meeting and in every interview.” Politicians are very influenced by research
which shows the value of a market against other sectors, he said, urging the wellness
Baumgarten said industry-wide collaboration was vital
tourism industry to compare itself with well known sectors such as manufacturing, auto- mobile and pharmaceuticals. “Be opportunistic as well,” he said, “Te
travel sector saw a 27 per cent drop in spend aſter 9/11 and we found at this point it was very effective to remind governments how much they were missing it.” Te Wellness Tourism Congress took place as part of the Global Spa & Wellness Summit.
Non-profit body launches to promote wellness
A newly formed non-profit organisation has formed with the aim of promoting wellness through education to both spa professionals and consumers. Te International Health &
Wellness Alliance (IHWA) has been formed to bring together wellness visionaries and seek- ers to define, educate and advance wellbeing for indi- viduals and communities. Forged at the GSWS, the
founding members of the alliance include Chiva-Som in Thailand; Como Hotels & Resorts, Destination Spa Management Ltd; Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat in Australia; Kamalaya Resort in Thailand; Longevity Wellness Resort in Portugal; Rancho La Puerta in Mexico and Sha Wellness Clinic in Spain. Also included as IHWA founding members
are Dr Daniel Friedland of SuperSmartHealth, Stella Photi of Wellbeing Escapes and spa con- sultant Lucie Brosseau.
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Oberoi’s Christine Hays (leſt) welcomes Rancho la Puerta’s Roberto Arjona – one of the founders of the IHWA – to the GSWS
Te IHWA held its inaugural meeting at
GSWS to gauge interest in the organisation. It will take a similar approach to the Khan
Academy, which makes education freely avail- able to anyone, anywhere in the world. Read more here:
http://lei.sr?a=s3z8w Visit the website here:
www.ihwa.co
Twitter: @spaopps © CYBERTREK 2013
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