RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Middle Eastern hoteliers have realized that wellness and lifestyle are now one and the same and are researching and fine-tuning new ways to transform health and spa products for the luxury market.
At last month’s Future Hospitality Summit, Ruben Toral, director of health and wellness at Bangkok-based business advisory Quo Global, said spas once only represented wellness but now are synonymous with lifestyle.
He said the consideration now is how to turn such a broad concept “into a product that is smaller and more targeted, and then sell it to a population of consumers that is small and demanding.”
Neil Jacobs, CEO of Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, said luxury can also mean providing high-end services but not expecting guests to always want to use them.
“Choose your argument. We’re not a Canyon Ranch,” he said, referring to the U.S. spa-retreat company with four properties.
“Give people options to grow as deeply or as shallowly as they want, but wellness at this level had to come from the top, not just from an approach of return on investment. Look at what it can do for occupancy, average daily rate, length of stay, but keep it honest,” he said.
Clint Nagata, founder and creative partner of Blink Design Group, also based in Bangkok, said he agrees with that approach.
“As a designer, I find it odd when brands bring in wellness consultants as it suggests the skill set and attitude is not already there in-house,” he said.
Jacobs said wellness now is a product, not a silo wrapped in cotton wool and handled with kid gloves.
“The resources needed to bring in and deliver wellness to this level, and the infrastructure for it, is huge. It is not unusual to spend $250 to $300 on a massage, $500 on a facial, and that is before you get to more expensive treatments,” he said.
Agnès Roquefort, chief development officer for luxury and lifestyle at Accor, said one question is how hotel firms can scale up something as special and unique as wellness.
“It is not about, 'Well, I have this space that is not being used, so how can I use it for wellness?' It has to be approached holistically, and some concepts in luxury brands will be bespoke,” she said, adding at that at Accor's Raffles-branded hotels there are yoga programs for both guests and staff who must learn and experience these products and initiatives themselves.
Mark DeCocinis, CEO of Boutique Group, said his firm is converting Saudi Arabia's palaces into retreats. Boutique Group is a hotel firm fully owned by Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund.
“Our vision is to deliver Saudi hospitality, which we believe will be the new benchmark. That was Asia, and before that it was Europe. Our guests will be primarily Saudi, and the top 2% of business and commercial travelers,” he said.
He added there is also a responsibility to take care of local communities.
“[Our hotels] are very special houses with history,” he said. “The industry still has a long way to go to deliver sustainable wellness projects on a long-term basis, as financial considerations unfortunately get in the way.”
Health and Wealth
Jacobs said creating communities around luxury hotels and products is key, especially at a time when lower-income groups are worrying about their jobs and hoteliers are concerned as to how to find staff.
“The question is, how do you create a good product that is accessible? No one has done this well. The industry has a responsibility to figure this out and to deliver content that reaches a wider group,” he said, adding two possible initiatives are creating festivals and offering rituals that have a wellness component in low-demand seasons.
DeCocinis said that 70% of Saudis are under 40 years of age and use social media to reflect themselves, two traits that must be kept in mind.
Brands have the power to construct the conversation and foster the ongoing trend of slow travel, Toral said, especially in a country such as Saudi Arabia where much of the hotel and hospitality industry remains a blank sheet — although it's filling up fast.
Nagata said design considerations should lead the way.
“It is about place-making. If there is a wonderful type of stone right at the hotel, it is a great story to get it out of the ground and use,” he said.
Jacobs said other ideas need to be thought through — for example, the creation of branded residences and clubs, multi-generational initiatives and ecosystems that are curative and mindful of health.
“These are solutions hoteliers are perfectly fit to create and answer,” he said. “One of the greatest health issues today is loneliness, which sort of came out of COVID-19, or was exacerbated by it, although that might not be such a problem in [Saudi Arabia] where there is a very strong family structure.
“One good thing about COVID-19 is that people are more conscious about how they now live,” he said.