Glen Ivy has created an outdoor treatment pavilion
Glen Ivy reopens with outdoor experience focus
Glen Ivy Hot Springs in California has reopened with a new private outdoor wellness package.
Passport to Wellness invites visitors to enjoy a day of physically-distanced pool-side relaxation including an outdoor mud therapy experience and 50-minute Swedish massage conducted in a new outdoor treatment pavilion, access to the extensive thermal and mineral pools onsite, exercises classes, swimming and fresh dining.
Due to COVID-19, Glen Ivy is only welcoming a small number of guests daily. The destination has thus made it a requirement to reserve a Passport to Wellness package to visit its facilities.
It offers visitors a personalised Glen Ivy Hot Springs experience including their own private lounges, dining area, changing cabana and a dedicated personal wellness concierge. Prices start at US$295 (€249, £225) per person.
US-based International Arts and Mind (IAM) Lab has collated a guide to help people use art as a coping mechanism during coronavirus.
“People are naturally gravitating toward the arts during lockdown,” says Susan Magsamen, IAM Lab executive director, “we saw it when the Italians sang from their balconies and children chalked the sidewalks with messages of hope.”
Before the pandemic, spas were starting to experiment with wellbeing-boosting arts-based activities – anything from colouring and painting to creative writing. This is expected to continue as they explore therapies which aren’t reliant on touch and IAM Lab’s COVID-19 NeuroArts Field Guide could be a great source of inspiration for new programmes.
The guide demonstrates how the arts support our collective health, wellbeing and learning and also offers simple explanations about the scientific evidence and research relating to the potential benefit of each activity.
With spa consumers potentially nervous about social distancing due to COVID-19, Spa Business has noticed a trend for hiring spas, or even whole resorts, exclusively.
Anantara was one of the first off the mark. It’s offering private-hire resort packages at its island destinations in Mozambique, the Maldives and the UAE starting from US$19,820 per night (€17,455, £15,579) to US$100,000 per night (€88,069, £78,590).
Other operators following suit include Six Senses Zil Pasyon in the Seychelles and Naladhu Private Island in the Maldives.
Six Senses Zil Pasyon is offering an exclusive island experience for €330k a week
New programmes
address both staff and guest mental wellbeing
Italian destination spa and hotel, Preidlhof, has reopened with new measures to support guests in dealing with any trauma resulting from months of lockdown.
The spa team has undergone intensified training with spa director Patrizia Bortolin, in conjunction with a professor of psychology, to prepare therapists for all the potential psycho-dynamics, attitudes, fears and reactions guests may have.
Bortolin says: “This will help them understand how to welcome, help and transform what is in the heart, body and mind of our guests after the global lockdown.”
In addition, the resort is offering dedicated sessions with a trauma-healing specialist and will work with guests to reduce psychophysical stress through heart rate analysis, psycho-aromatherapy, laughter yoga and forest bathing.
In a similar move, Mandarin Oriental has created a four-week course for colleagues across its 60 spas to boost their mental wellness.
The course is split into four modules: body, mind and character; managing stress mindfully; self-compassion and loving-kindness; and bringing strength to personal missions.
Group spa director Jeremy McCarthy says it’s “designed to help our colleagues physically and emotionally... to help them come back at their best, ready to be of service to others.”
Mandarin Oriental is now working on developing a similar course for guests.
Aromatherapy Associates has launched four touchless In-Room Wellbeing Experience kits for its hotel spa partners to offer.
The kits feature five products, presented alongside a beverage and digital how-to guides recorded by therapists, so guests can administer their own treatment in their own space along with a wellbeing guide to continue the treatment at home.
Treatments, focused on sleep, calm/de-stress, recharge/revive and a chance to ground/restore, have been crafted to ensure that hotel guests who are nervous about venturing into the spa are still able to experience the luxury of a professional wellbeing experience.
“We know our spas have done a magnificent job at ensuring their guests feel safe to return through their doors,” says Christina Salcedas, global director of education and wellbeing, “but we also understand there may be a few who are still reluctant to venture as far as the spa.
So, these In-Room Experiences are a natural progression in our spa treatment portfolio.”
Aromatherapy Associates has developed a guestroom kit for its hotel spa partners
‘Heal the healers’ at Sensei Hawaii
Hawaiian community organisation, Pulama Lanai, is gifting a limited number of wellness retreats to healthcare professionals at Sensei Lāna‘i, A Four Seasons Resort, on the island of Lāna‘i.
The Heroes Relaxation Retreat packages are designed to thank Hawaiian medical staff putting their lives at risk to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic. They include a two-night stay, chartered flights, leisure activities and a US$600 (£485, €536) voucher to spend on wellbeing experiences or a deep dive into either performance psychology, nutrition, yoga, fitness or meditation.
Sensei, the wellness brand owned by tech billionaire, Larry Ellison, launched in November 2019 and is the first initiative under the recently launched Sensei Well - Being brand (see SB19/4 p20).
The two-night, complimentary packages are a ‘thank you’ to medical staff
Immune-boosting focus
A growing number of spas are revealing immune-boosting programmes
as consumer interest in health prevention surges. So what’s on offer?
Lefay uses TCM to strengthen immunity
Lefay Resort & Spa Di Garda, an eco-spa resort in Italy, has reopened with a series of TCM-inspired experiences to increase and strengthen guests’ immune systems.
The Nourishing Life Prevention scheme involves a range of wellness experiences, such as spa treatments, psychological consultations and outdoor activities with TCM specialists. The new Nutrire La Vita therapy, for example, consists of 10 minutes of moxibustion focusing on the spleen and pancreas, which provide the body with the ‘fuel’ for optimal functionality and a rebalancing massage and starts at €90 (£81, US$102).
Psychosomatic and psychotherapeutic consultations addressing the stress of recent months last 50 minutes and cost €100 (£90, US$114).
Lefay has also devised The White Tiger Path – an outdoor therapist-led routine focused on disciplines such as Zen meditation, qi gong and perception walking. With a starting price of €329 (£288, US$364), it also combines stress-relieving breathing sessions, a guided walk through the Energy Therapeutic Garden and a full body massage working on energy points.
The scheme includes outdoor activities with TCM specialists and psychotherapeutic sessions
Lanserhof debuts COVID-19 programme
Austria-based medical spa operator, Lanserhof, unveiled a therapy programme designed for people who’ve been ill with COVID-19 in May.
It uses a variety of modern medical tests to assess guests’ immune system, internal organs, sleep activity, psyche and physical and mental fitness. This information is then used to create a tailored programme which includes therapy options such as IV infusions, lymph treatments, healing and connective tissue massages, cryotherapy, respiratory and mitochondrial therapy, as well as oxygen therapy, nutritional measures and sports science support.
According to Lanserhof: “Everything in the programme is based on our Lanserhof cure, in which the body is freed from unnecessary and disease-causing burdens”. Packages start at around €7,750 (US$8,853, £7,072).
Anantara has created a signature massage oil to support the body’s defence system which its rolling out across its 40 spas as they reopen.
The new oil can be incorporated into Anantara’s signature massages and contains clove oil, bitter orange peel extract, eucalyptus oil and rosemary. Both clove oil and the orange extract are claimed to protect against a wide range of bacterial cells, fungi and viruses. Meanwhile eucalyptus and rosemary oil include natural inflammatory properties and immune system boosters which aid in creating white blood cells that combat pathogens and disease.
On creating the oil Zoe Wall, group director of MSpa, the corporate division of spa and wellness for Anantara, says: “Even during closure, our guests’ wellbeing was at the forefront of our minds and we took some time during lockdown to reflect on what we could do to show that we’re just as serious about their health as they are. While our guests will still want to relax with a massage, our new signature massage oil gives an extra boost.”
Clove and citrus peel extract in the oil protect against a range of bacterial cells and viruses
Sha teams up with NASA and Harvard
Spanish medi-wellness facility, Sha Wellness Clinic, collaborated with NASA and Harvard to create new programmes and treatments for its reopening on 22 July.
It’s combining medical treatments and natural therapies to “restore and stimulate the body’s natural immunity, with the goal of enabling the body to be in the best condition for defeating threats to health and wellbeing.”
The dedicated immune-boosting regime forms just one part of Sha’s signature seven-day, €4,000 (US$4,480, £3,574) Rebalance programme and begins with an initial immunotherapy consultation, lymph system profile, viral profile and energy health consultation.
Participants then undergo two sessions of infrared heat therapy, an optimal electromagnetic balance session and an ozone therapy session.
Looking at how people are equipped to combat disease and how they can strengthen their immune system is the key to a new programme at the integrative wellness destination, Sangha Retreat by Octave Institute, in China.
Wellness and lifestyle consultations, along with scientific tests – ranging from assessing posture to checking metabolic function – determine the strength of defence systems, both physically and mentally.
Following this, a range of daily prescribed therapeutic treatments, alongside a customised nutrition plan, will be selected. Services could include TCM and aromatherapy massages, acupuncture and use of infrared, along with PT, pilates and aquatic stretching sessions to relax and detoxify the body, allowing it to enter a rejuvenation phase.
Founder Fred Tsao says: “The purpose of the institute is to introduce a new cycle of living that achieves mind, body and spiritual wellness. We’re now witnessing the onset of a new era of consciousness and wellbeing.”
Sangha’s three-night programme starts from CNY19,100 (£2,195, US$2,689, €2,458) per person and the six-night experience has a starting price of CNY32,700 (£3,757, US$4,605, €4,209) per person.
Remedy Place, a US-based social wellness club brand, is poised for steady expansion in the
coming years, with plans to open two new clubs annually moving forward.
Swiss longevity brand Clinique La Prairie (CLP) has inked a deal with Montara Hospitality
Group
to operate a resort at Tri Vananda – a purpose-built wellness community in Phuket,
Thailand.
Recovery, social wellness and longevity were talking points at the
recent PerformX Live, tipped by many
speakers as upcoming trends, while the exhibition halls featured infrared
saunas, compression
therapy and ice baths.
A new study by UCLA Health found Kundalini yoga provided several benefits to cognition and
memory for older women at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Luxury lakeside retreat The Ritz-Carlton-Reynolds, Lake Oconee in Georgia, US, is gearing up to
unveil its new-look destination spa this May following a comprehensive makeover.
Europe’s first Evian Spa has opened at the five-star Hôtel Royal in Evian-les-Bains, France – the birthplace
of the Danone-owned mineral water brand Evian.
A boutique safari and wellness escape will open in Botswana’s wildlife-rich Okavango Delta this
May, marking the latest venture from Ibiza's Atzaró Group.
Global publishing outfit, Leisure Media, has announced details of its new annual conference for decision-
makers across the health, fitness and wellness markets. The event – the HCM Summit – will be held at the
QEII Conference Centre in Westminster, London on 24 October 2024, with pre-summit events the day
before.
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