Healthy market

As modern life increasingly takes its toll on your clients' health, Leisure Manager looks at why a growing number of spas are making wellness their priority.

While the concept of a spa as a place where you would go to relax and be pampered has become well-established in the region, spa operators and experts are seeing a new path for the industry. Increasingly, clients are looking beyond just feeling healthy, to actually using a spa as a way of genuinely becoming more healthy.

Those who capitalise on this fast-growing sector are likely to reap significant rewards. Healthcare spending is big business. According to Epoc Messe Frankfurt, organisers of Wellness and Spas Middle East 2009, the UAE has witnessed significant expansion in healthcare and wellness facilities, which has put emphasis on the appeal for healthy living. The total healthcare market in the UAE is estimated to touch US$12 billionby 2015, with around US$3 billion of this accounting for wellness products and services sectors.

"An ageing population of baby boomers, and the increasing stress of modern life has created a boom in wellness retreats and spas around the world," says Epoc Messe Frankfurt managing director Elisabeth Brehl. "Personal wellness is starting to become a lifestyle trend as people seek relaxation and a respite from the pressures of daily life, and activities that cultivate physical, spiritual and mental wellbeing are becoming important to many people in deciding how to spend their leisure time."

Beyond pampering

This increasing awareness of what a spa can offer is being driven by customers having more access to information, in thanks partly to the internet.

"Spas do carry a reputation for being only about pampering and something only women partake in. While there is nothing wrong with luxury pampering and exclusivity, there are entire segments of the population who want to feel and look better from the outside-in and the inside-out, and so to attract this segment, spas need to be able to efficiently and effectively communicate why these customers should consider a spa break," says spa web portal Wahanda co-founder and CEO Salim Mitha.

"The internet has proven to be an amazing place for consumers to research, weigh and eventually decide and purchase very high consideration, research-intensive, personal and expensive items such as homes, cars and holidays." Mitha points out that spa breaks fit perfectly into this profile, and that any business looking to capitalise on the growth of the wellness sector should take advantage of such tools to provide increased information and transparency.

The increase in wellness awareness is, in part, linked to the increase in ‘lifestyle diseases', "A sign of wealth is people getting fat, having strokes, cardiovascular disease and not being well. That has led to a lot of lifestyle diseases and more awareness of people wanting to use their limited private time to do something for themselves, to be better, to improve their lifestyle," says Six Senses managing director Bernhard Bohnenberger.

Wellness, provided by spas, can prove a financially viable preventative measure against those conditions. "44% of people's income is being spent on health. Imagine if that money could be given back as preventative health," says Bohnenberger.

Massive market

This figure could potentially be even higher in the Gulf region. "Obesity is fast becoming a real issue for the 4.9 million people living in the UAE. Figures indicate that 60% of Emirati nationals are overweight and this figure is broadly in line with the obesity levels within the expatriate community; particularly those from the western hemisphere.

It is a problem for the whole region; in fact, the UAE has the second highest rate of type two diabetes in the world, and the Middle East, as a whole, is under a serious obesity epidemic," says senior show manager of Wellness and Spas Middle East, Elaine O'Connell. She also points out that over 60% of Bahrainis are also at serious risk along with 36%. Given these figures, it's no surprise there the rewards for successfully acting on this sector are significant.

Spas are increasingly beginning to target this percentage of income. Six Senses, for instance, has opened a destination spa in Thailand aimed specifically at training people for a healthier lifestyle.

"Here you're talking about some of the more spa oriented destination spas, where you don't go to relax and have a treatment, but you go with a purpose. It's all encompassing programmes that look at teaching you good habits so you go back with an improved lifestyle," says Bohnenberger.

However, it's not essential for a spa to fully brand itself as a wellness destination in order for it to provide a level of wellness in its treatement.

"People normally think of [wellness] as a combination of many different things, it's not just going to a spa," says Man/Age general manager Jacqui McCumiskey. "It could be fitness, or diet. The hype right now is on wellness but what we do is more education on the wellness side. We don't have the nutritionists or fitness instructors but we do have a lot of experience."

She points out that it is essential for any spa offering a wellness treatment, such as a slimming wrap, to back up those treatments with education so the client can get the full benefit. "Wellness starts in your head. It's about getting people into that way of thinking and talking about different ideas - not what they ‘should' be doing, but ‘could' be doing - and introducing different treatments."

While for licensing reasons it's important that spas aiming to target the wellness sector do not pitch themselves too strongly as ‘medical', there is scope for creating ‘smart' treatments based on a patient's medical history and physical condition.

"Staying at a destination spa starts with an assessment, we goes through your concerns and why you've come but it's not done in a clinical way. We feel we should deliver a pleasant natural environment," says Bohnenburger. . "We do some diagnostics, like iridology where we photograph your iris and your iridologist will explain where you have weaknesses in your system. We also do a blood test and go through that with you. We also have Chinese herbal medicine and we can package tablets for you to take back."

Spas that are doing this sort of advanced treatment are increasingly becoming more commonplace. "Spas have evolved into an innovative industry constantly redesigning society's choices, moving away from the provision of aesthetic treatments into the realm of health and wellness. Aerobics, yoga and fitness training are featuring as common-place spa therapies, along with nutritional advice and traditional medical systems, such as ayurveda and naturopathy," says O'Connell.

With stress levels and health problems only likely to increase during these challenging times, there's never been a better moment for a spa to invest in providing options for clients to keep themselves, and therefore spa businesses, in the prime of health.

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