Spa & wellness
textures combine to create a soothing environment, [while] stone walls, wood-panelled ceilings, a relaxation lounge surrounded by water features and an outdoor sauna are architectural touches that makes the spa a sanctuary of serenity”.
Finding inner peace
For many people, the ‘inner journey’ that these spa packages promote is beginning to take precedence over the physical act of travel that used to guide spa tourism. No longer a means of temporary escape from the routine of daily life, these retreats are now an all-encompassing, quasi-monastic programme of self-improvement that can be taxing and intensive rather than relaxing or indulgent. As Yaman explains, Mandarin Oriental’s “comprehensive wellness programmes, conducted by in-house specialists and internationally renowned spa gurus, enable guests to improve their lifestyle by passing on good practices to them that can be continued in daily life after they leave the resort.” As such, the line between wellness spas and medical health centres has become increasingly blurred – but the distinction is usually located in the preventative (rather than curative) approach to health that commercialised spas tend to offer.
The combination of a growing wellness industry and the world’s slow emergence out of the Covid-19 pandemic is no doubt reshaping the hotel sector, as well as travel and tourism broadly – but what does the future look like? “The pandemic has exposed how vulnerable our industry is when government restrictions are put in place,” Yaman says, “[but] demand is on the rise, as consumers increasingly focus on the importance of their well-being, mental health and stress relief.” In the coming years, Yaman predicts that wellness will drive the growth of the spa industry, too. “Consumers seek to reset their physical, spiritual, and psychological well-being and bond with a likeminded community on wellness trips,” she adds. “People who travel for business or leisure often incorporate wellness activities into their itinerary as well.”
Surget, too, notes the double impact of Covid-19 on the spa sector. On the one hand, because of the intimate nature of the spa, “the treatment experience for guests and providers alike [was] considerably disrupted. In the short term, it turned it into an almost clinical experience, with masks, wellness checks, gloves and so on”.
“On the flip side, it also provided an even more exceptional experience for our guests when, for example, we started to privatise spaces that would have been [public] in the past, such as the sauna, jacuzzi and steam room. The spa industry has certainly been heavily affected by the crisis,” Surget
Hotel Management International /
www.hmi-online.com 47
acknowledges, “but we are glad to see confidence in both travellers and providers growing, as time and knowledge progress.”
Looking ahead, Surget says that the biggest shift he has observed is that wellness goes beyond the rooms of spa treatments in hotels. “Guests now want to be immersed in a generally well-balanced environment, and while the spa remains the inner sanctum, they also look for wellness-focused execution in terms of menu curation, ability to be active, environmental awareness, community relation and so on – anything that allows them to indulge guilt-free, knowing that even on vacation they are doing good to themselves and to others.” The future of spa, Surget believes, “will generally lean in the direction of biohacking and life prolongation through wellness […] and I think we will start to see a growing focus on the general topic of ‘what can I do to live longer, healthier and happier?’”. With any luck, the future will also hold the relaunch of Amangiri’s sleep retreat in the Utah desert. After two years of a global pandemic and all the lockdowns, health crises and general disruption that it has entailed, I am sure we could all do with a good night’s sleep. ●
Above: The traditional, intimate nature of spas was disrupted by Covid-19 but are now making a comeback.
Below: By going beyond pampering, Amangiri opens the opportunity for visitors to star gaze.
Mandarin; Amangiri
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61
