COMPANY PROFILE PROMOTION GOCO CEO INGO SCHWEDER
Ingo Schweder is one of the world’s foremost hotel and spa professionals, following 30 years’ experience with lead- ing hospitality chains. He began in F&B at Waldorf Astoria, joined Ritz-Carlton when it started off, moving to Shangri-La and Rafael Group Hoteliers as RM/GM. He later became group director of hotel oper- ations for Oberoi and was subsequently co-founder and MD of the award-winning destination spa, Ananda in the Himalayas. His vision, as board member and group director – spa at Mandarin Oriental from 2001-2007, meant the hotel group became the first to have its own dedicated in-house spa portfolio, which he built from the ground up to 15 spas across three conti- nents in six years.
Schweder has won 10 personal awards
for excellence and is an overall leading industry personality. His commitment to projects – including Rajvilas in India; Sha Wellness Clinic in Spain; The Spa at The Claridges, in India; and the spas at The Mandarin Oriental in New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo – has made them award winners on numerous occasions. He occasionally finds downtime for his passions: jazz, yoga, Thailand beaches and daily juicing. His cancer diagnosis at 33 spurred a personal lifestyle change that morphed naturally into a dedicated pro- fessional focus – spas and wellbeing. “I hope the platforms we build now for oth- ers extend their longevity and strengthen their health,” he says.
GOCO CORPORATE OFFICES In line with GOCO’s emphasis on teamwork, Schweder has made the design and construc- tion of a Bangkok corporate office one of his priorities for 2013. At a cost of US$3m, the 500sq m purpose-built, wholly-owned office behind Four Seasons Bangkok will span several floors each dedicated to specific seg- ments of the business – finance, feasibility, design, marketing and operations. The space will reflect GOCO’s reputation for high design: flooded with natural light and accessible to a fully functioning kitchen with resident cook preparing healthy meals. It was shrewd psychology to invest in the bricks and mortar space. “If you’re in a beautiful envi- ronment, people feel comfortable and I seek to attract smart, committed professionals
Wellness related travel is on the up. There’s an increasingly older and wealthier population with a determination to remain healthy
to work for GOCO. Equally our office will attract business, as it’s a statement of who we are. The style will be minimal, authentic and include bespoke art. It says much about our contemporary good taste and operational functionality,” says Schweder. Elsewhere, a GOCO office in central Berlin is due to open in September while a Shanghai office, under negotiation, is planned for March 2014.
THE GOCO BRAND – ‘WHERE WELLNESS MEETS WANDERLUST’ The GOCO span of expertise provides a wholly integrated range of services from pro- ject development and financial structuring through to ongoing management; in other words a one-stop turnkey solution with scope and versatility at the core. The master plan of multi million dollar real estate projects such as groundbreaking wellness villages in Qatar and Hebei, China, or the creation of a 1,000sq m city spa in Frankfurt, Venice and Ajman sit side-by-side in the GOCO portfolio. GO – alluding to travel, movement and
GOCO is to open a 500sq m purpose- built office in central Bangkok this year
energy and CO – from community combined with hospitality sums up a brand which crosses borders and offers innovative solutions in the
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area of wellness. The company aims to be the leading global firm for ‘wellness hospitality’. So, if there’s a current defining focus for GOCO it’s on scalable destination resorts. “This supports our tagline: Where Wellness Meets Wanderlust,” says Schweder. “Well- ness related travel is on the up. There’s an increasingly older and wealthier pop- ulation with a determination to remain healthy. Across the board people are taking more responsibility for actively maintain- ing their wellbeing.” Schweder helped to conceive one of the world’s first wellness des- tinations, Ananda in the Himalayas in 1999. Today he’s behind wellness destinations in China, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Europe. “We’re probably the only company to have multiple destination spas [dedicated health resorts] across continents,” he says. “Our long-term aim is to manage and oper- ate wellness concepts in all five continents.” By 2014, the company will be managing and operating two destination wellness resorts, five spa operations and a 15,000sq m thermal spring facility. Alongside the other 22 projects in the pipeline, the company is negotiating four further wellness resort destinations in Germany, Bhutan, Bali and southern China.
Spa Business 3 2013 ©Cybertrek 2013
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