Four-star spa market set to expand

A new four-star spa market is set to emerge in Dubai as two major hotel chains have revealed they are looking to launch new spa concepts.

The Country Club Group, which operates The Country Club Hotel Dubai and owns 46 hotels plus more than 300 affiliated resorts or franchises mainly in India, said it would be developing a new spa launch plus health club improvements.

Vice president operations Middle East Jayan Thomas Mathew said: "The Country Club Group is more of a leisure focused brand than a business brand. It is not only about selling hotel rooms - we have a bigger commitment to society and to our community of members [which comprises 200,000 member families]".

"In the next 18 months we are working on some improvements for the facilities in The Country Club Hotel Dubai.

"We are looking to introduce a spa to the hotel, which would be branded as a Country Club spa - it's going to be one of the only four-star hotels in Dubai with a spa," asserted Mathew.

"The spa will be an Ayurvedic spa, with qualified instructors and therapists performing the treatments. Kairali Group will be providing the services at the spa," he said.

Mathew added that the hotel was also in the process of updating its health club with "top-of-the-line equipment" and introducing personal training.

As well as looking for more hotel properties in Dubai, the group would also be looking for "smaller properties to run as fitness centres or what we call ‘satellite clubs' where we can have health centres called Country Spa," added Mathew.

The four-star focus on spa has been echoed by the general manager of Novotel - Ibis Hotels Al Barsha, who is responsible for opening Accor's Ibis and Novotel brands in Al Barsha, Dubai, in 2009 and 2010.

"As business brands, Ibis and Novotel put a lot more [emphasis] on F&B, especially for Ibis. For Novotel we are looking at having a partnership with a specific operator for spa, but the definition of spa is very wide, depending on who you are talking with because there's a lot of difference between offering pure massage and a full treatment," explained  Philippe Montaubin, general manager, Novotel - Ibis Hotels Al Barsha.

"We'd prefer to operate with someone who knows what they're doing, similar to Mandara," he revealed.

Montaubin added, however, that most of the demand from Novotel's clientele was for fitness over spa: "They want a gym or health centre, but they don't specifically ask for a spa in a city hotel. Massage yes, but not full spa treatments," he commented.

Montaubin's comments followed the revelation from Mandara Spa Middle East and Indian Ocean managing director Kory Thompson that it had developed a new four-star spa brand called Chavana, as published in Leisure Manager June 2008.

Thompson said Mandara Spa had entered into an agreement with Accor to develop and manage spas within its Novotel, Mercure and Pullman hotels in the Middle East and Pakistan.

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