Hotelier Middle East's first Spa and Wellness Forum is taking place at the Ritz-Carlton DIFC, in Dubai, today (March 18), and we'll be keeping you in the loop on the headlines and updates from the show.
With the number of spas continuing to increase over the next 12 months and wellness products and services tipped to generate up to AED 11 billion (USD $3 ) in revenue by 2015 in the UAE alone, the forum will address the biggest opportunities and challenges facing spa managers and directors from hotels and independent outlets across the country.
8am: Arrived at the event to find our sponsors, exhibitors and all-round industry experts raring to go, including official wellness sponsor Technogym, and exhibitors Diversey, The Product House and Merchant Star International.
| Advertisement |
The stage has been set for this morning's first panel session ' Becoming a world-class spa & wellness destination - is the UAE up to the challenge' which kicks off at 9:05am.
Here's a quick intro to the panelists and moderator for our first session. For full bios of our experts including a preview of today's event, click here:
- Moderator: Kathryn Moore, Director of Operations and International Project Manager, MSPA International
- Daniella Russell, Director, DR Global
- Lindsay Madden-Nadeau, Regional Spa Director UAE, Anantara Spas – MSPA International
- Naim Maadad, CEO, Gates Hospitality
- Mark Walton, Co-Founder, VOYA
But now the first visitors are starting to arrive - time to grab a coffee...
9:05am: The first panel has kicked off with the experts focusing on the question: What will it take for UAE tourism to attain true ‘spa destination’ status?
The key issues raised in this panel are:
- Slashed spa staff salaries since the recession have made it difficult to hire the right staff with the knowledge to compete with other international spa destinations.
- Education of spa staff has become an issue, many staff in the emirates have a good touch but lack spa knowledge.
- Guest expectations are extremely high and to be an international spa destination, spas need international standards.
- According to Naim Maadad, the biggest issue with the spa industry is - unlike the hotel industry - it doesn't have classifications. Even the menus and pricing of different tiers of spa aren't defined
- Budget is an issue, though the panelists disagreed on the ins and outs of this. Lindsay Madden-Nadeau said spa often comes after rooms and F&B in terms of budget allocated, though former GM Maadad says in his experience spa has become after rooms but above F&B.
We'll be using the morning break to find out if our audiences members agree with these statements - stay logged on!
9:50am: The first panel session got off to a fiery start proving the spa professionals are certainly a knowledgeable and honest bunch. Now we're straight into the next session entitled Raising The Bar – Meeting The Dynamic (And Increasingly Demanding) Consumer Expectations.
First, let's meet the experts, we have:
Moderator: Sarah Jordan, CEO, Sarah Jordan Associates
Paul Hawco, Group Director of Spa, Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts
Deborah Castignani, Spa Manager, The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort & Marina
Anjali Aggarwal, General Manager, Zen Asia Spa
The spa managers are raising a number of issues and observations:
- Through communication with guests many spas are finding guests are in search of more results-driven tretments including anti-aging solutions.
- Many spas are now offering manicures, pedicures and other beauty treatments to provide a one-stop shop.
- For these treatments, guests are looking for longer lasting solutions
- Service is key to providing the whole spa experience, though there is still room for growth in this area.
- More and more clients are researching certain treatments online before coming to the spa
- This can cause challenges for spa managers in the UAE, as they say often spa trends and products originating in the UK and US markets take longer to reach this region.
10:30am: WORD FROM THE AUDIENCE: We've just had a 30-minute break which created the perfect opportunity to catch up with some of today's audience members.
Among them is the upcoming Rosewood Abu Dhabi spa manager Louis Molina, who I asked whether he agreed with our panelist's earlier comments about plummeting salaries making it difficult to hire knowledgeable staff members.
Molina said the group is currently hiring staff and offering a slightly higher salary than the market average in an attempt to entice staff to the new property. Staff members already on board include those from Russia, which he hopes will work as an advantage considering this morning's earlier discussion which identified Russia as an emerging market, but highlighted the lack of Russian-speaking staff in many hotels.
As part of his market research, Louis Molina would also like to know which are the UAE's leading destination spas? Any suggestions from our Hotelier readers? Post your comments at the end of this story or on the Hotelier Facebook page.
We also caught up with Sheraton Jumeirah Beach Resort Dubai recereation and spa manger Bassem El Jawhari, who was very honest about the challenges faced. He acknowledged the challenge presented by low salaries stemming from low budgets allocated to the hotel spas. He said rooms and F&B are generally priortiised above spa.
11am: Time for the next session The Rise Of Wellness In The Middle East featuring the following experts:
Afrah Hamdy, Director of Spa, Al Ghurair Arjaan & Al Ghurair Rayhaan by Rotana
Matthew Graham, Health Club Manager – Sports & Leisure, Jumeirah Beach Hotel
Penny Brewer, Centre Director, Point Zero Floatation Centre
Liam Fitzgerald, Chief Executive Officer, Nomad Leisure Solutions
The first question from moderator Naim Maadad, CEO, Gates Hospitality is a relatively straight forward one... what is wellness? However our panelists can't quite agree.
Penny Brewer offered the most comprehensive definition saying wellness comprises physical, emotional and mental considerations. "I'd like to see wellness bridging the gap between hospitals, spa and hospitality," she said.
However, the lack of agreement on the definition led Maadad to point out: "If we can't agree on the definition of wellness, we're lost".
The debate is opened to the floor to find out how they define wellness.
The session concluded that "Wellness is an outcome rather than an activity". Don't forget to read the full show review is the next issue of Hotelier Middle East magazine.
11:50am: The next panelists take the stage for the Speaking The Language of Spas AND Business debate.
Moderator: Neil Hewerdine, Vice President Spa Services, Atlantis The Palm
Christian Kiefer, Director Of Spa & Leisure, St Regis Abu Dhabi Pre Opening Office
Sharon Barcock Director of Spa Operations & Development MEA, Hilton Worldwide
Michael Monsod, Director of Spa & Recreation, Sofitel The Palm, Dubai
Jason Sloan, Group Director of Spa, Niyama By Per Aquum
One of the key issues for hotel spa managers working within hotel spas, appears to be the communication between the spa manager and hotel finance teams, GM and owner.
Sharon Barcock: "There’s a huge divide in the level of knowledge, if you talk about a hotel operator you have the finance team, and spa people do speak a different language to the hotel. One of the things I’ve noticed is you have finance teamworking along the same lines as the hotel when preparing spa budgets, spa manager comes in and looks at the detail and realises they don’t have enough team members to achieve the set budget. So there’s a lack of synergy and that comes down to hotel teams and spa people.
"Sometimes because of low pay spa managers don’t have the experience we’d like them to have. There is a requirement that we do provide suitable training for our teams so we can develop people.
"Working in the hotel sector we should be focused on hotel guests, but we can’t rely on full hotel occupancy making a full spa and we need to look outside that. Everything is geared towards the bottom live, very often spa managers come in – especially if they’ve been a therapist - and want to make it a nice environment but forget it’s a business, and owners want to see that ROI.
"Another question is, who is doing the repoting for the spa? We’re finding more and more there’s no reporting on the statistics. The budget is done, P&L done, but it would be nice to see spa managers taking more accountability for end of month results, how they’ve done and how they can improve. It’s important to understand what percentage of hotel guests are coming into the spa and different ways of driving the business.
- What’s the average cheque, average revenue per minute.
Moderator Neil Hewerdine: How else can we involve hotel owners /nGM in the business?
Michael Monsod: "It’s important for you to know what language the finance team is speaking and make them realise what you mean by statistic you have and have collected, and if they understand that you know more about the spa business they’ll listen. The other thing is managing expectations, explaining capacity – number of therapists versus treatment rooms.
"You give a forecast for next month and they say why is it low, and you say you’ve had resignation from a therapist. And they don’t always get it but we need to explain to management team and the GM. For each management team they have different priorities – not everyone has same metrics. You have to do your homework and they have to know you know what you’re talking about, if they see a gap in your argument they jump in with numbers.
12:20pm: The morning's final panel session centres on The Spa Journey – Engineering A Seamless Experience
More than just a single treatment, a spa should deliver an environment that relaxes and reinvigorates. It is important to create a seamless journey for an individual but with so many elements involved; it requires much more complexity than appears.
The panel is being moderated by Janette Watts, Founder and Managing Director, The Product House.
And the panelists are:
Gopal Kumar Dogra, Director of Spa & Retail, Burj Al Arab
Galina Antoniouk, Complex Director of Spas, Grosvenor House, Luxury Collection Hotels and Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort and Spa
Zoe Wall, Spa Director, Anantara Hotels, Resorts and Spas
Ebrahim Malekzadeh, Chief Executive Officer, Esadore
Here's what they're talking about:
- Effective personalised marketing and fostering loyalty – is there a secret formula?
- Maximising each space within your spa to achieve the right ambience
- Training and incentivising your staff to deliver the best customer service possible
- Extending the spa journey into the home – developing the strength of retails sales
Top points raised in panel...
• Spa managers are focusing on volume of guests, personalised marketing but often forget the basics such as customer service. Customer service is the way to make the biggest impact, as well as remembering guest preferences
Burj Al Arab Director of Spa & Retail Gopal Kumar Dogra said: “We’re very visible, and those kinds of places we have to maintain the customer service, expectation is already up before they come in so the journey has to be seamless and impactful, the way we treat the guest. A lot of time we try to focus on loyalty for the customers, and that’s a relationship, it has to be nurtured you can’t take it for granted. The team has the biggest impact, you’ve got to remember loyal staff will create loyal customers”. Burj Al Arab
• Spa journey can be broken down into four different elements – staff, service, facility and product range. Journey starts as soon as a booking is made.
• Very important to consider the space you have to work with in the spa.
• Better if the spa manager can be brought on board earlier to see the spa through from concept stage
• A proactive approach needs to be taken towards spa layout, if facilities aren’t being used it’s important to replace them with more profitable options
• Guests often return to a spa for a particular therapist so it’s important to train them adequately and retain them
• Living in Dubai, guests know how to complain and get what they want, but we need to educate staff on how to deal with this situation. We just have to adapt and make guests happy
• Very important to view the whole ‘spa journey’ through the guests’ eyes, from reservations, to walk ways and treatments through to follow up and return experience
• Quality checks, mystery shoppers – all crucial to testing the spa experience and the adequacy of training
• Room for growth in retail sales – could be a significant revenue generator
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
