EVENT REVIEW: Spa & Wellness Summit 2014
More than 250 spa and wellness professionals working in the UAE and beyond attended the two-day Hotelier Middle East Spa and Wellness Summit last month, where staff incentives, therapist regulation, spa promotions, male grooming, customer service and the sustainability of the spa industry were the hot topics on everyone’s lips
The second edition of the Hotelier Middle East Spa and Wellness Summit was extended to span two days this year and attracted 256 spa directors, wellness managers, spa owners and senior therapists from across the UAE spa sector, with some delegates even travelling from Oman and Qatar to attend.
Held at Grosvenor House Hotel Dubai and sponsored by Sarum Trading and The Product House, the summit featured a host of panel discussions, interactive workshops and practical demonstrations, with plenty of time for networking and sharing business challenges and opportunities alike.
The focus of the event was on spa and wellness and everything in between, with topics covering spa genomics, inclusive wellness, spa careers, product trends and therapist licensing, not to mention the likes of hammams, ayurveda, eco-spas, medi-spas and detox spas.
Long gone are the debates over pampering versus results-driven treatments in spas. There was no doubt that there is room for both; what is more important to the continued growth of the spa industry is its evolution into the sphere of wellness and its potential to touch every single one of the millions of tourists passing through the UAE each year.
Wellness tourism is a reality and the numbers are staggering: according to the Global Wellness Institute, wellness tourism is already a US $439 billion market—or more than one in seven of all tourist dollars—and is set to grow to US $678.5 billion in three short years (by 2017). It is directly responsible for 11.7 million global jobs, which deliver US$1.3 trillion in global economic impact.
While Europe and North America dominate this market for now, over 50% of the projected growth in wellness tourism through 2017 will come from Asia, Latin America and the Middle East/North Africa. Considering that wellness tourists spend, on average, 130% more than the average global tourist, this is a potentially lucrative business to be in.
Enabling this growth, however, not to mention maintaining the reputation for excellence the UAE’s spas have achieved to date, will come down to one thing; quality.
Ensuring the highest quality of product, staff and service will be paramount going forward, a theme which dominated many of the discussions at the summit.
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PEOPLE POWER
With offering quality at the forefront, the onus is on spa leaders to establish strong and appealing career paths for spa staff, with training and motivation vital components of this.
Owner of International Spa Consultants Helen Merchant moderated a panel to address this very topic, with panelists including Lea Cordon Rouf, managing director, Spa Cordon, Sky Gardens DIFC; Michael Monsod, director of spa and recreation, Sofitel The Palm; Meara Dougherty, operations manager, The Product House; and Ghassan Amer, spa manager, Amara Spa, Park Hyatt Dubai.
With the absence of spa training schools in the Middle East, the panelists debated whether it was down to spa operators or product suppliers to train staff. Spas often recruit from abroad and need to up-skill staff once they arrive; how do they best do this?
Cordon Rouf said that the responsibility for training lies with the spa: “Once you have your staff here you have to reassess their skills and deliver a training programme. Training is an investment; your staff performance is a reflection of what you’re teaching, it’s a reflection of what your spa is about. You have to take ownership and say ‘this team is mine and any of their actions, I’m held accountable for them”.
Monsod agreed, but admitted he also relied on product suppliers for support.
“We expect them to be able to perform things like facials, and that’s when the pressure goes to The Product House to be able to help us out. However, it’s our responsibility to ensure that our staff have the right basic skills to be able to perform advanced treatments so that we can fulfil the promise to our clients.”
Dougherty said there was sometimes disconnect between what spas sought and what The Product House was able to provide.
“When staff come into The Product House, our position is to train in specific treatments and products and the protocols of specific brands; it is not to train in basic skills sets. The expectations of spa directors can be quite high. We are there to provide training but to what extent are we there to provide training?” she asked.
Monsod added that it helped to recruit from within the region and urged spa managers to pool information more often.
“I think it’s important to reach out to other properties to get an idea of the qualifications of a potential employee. In the UAE, we don’t do enough of that mostly because we often need to recruit immediately. I think as a community we need to be in touch more and communicate to get good references.
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“I think it has improved – there are forums like this where we are together,” he said of the summit.
“However, we should communicate with each other more, especially when it comes to recruitment because there are a lot of CVs going around and you’re not sure how accurate they are – some look good on paper but in practice it’s not true, there’s just not the skill.
He also raised the issue that when recruiting from abroad it is difficult to get a sense of personality; something which is important for the spa’s quality of service.
“I just finished with a pre-opening and more than 50% of my therapists were from outside the country – so it is a big risk, but what can you do? You have to make sure you lessen the risk as much as possible,” said Monsod.
Once staff were recruited and trained, keeping them was the next challenge identified, with the panel and delegates alike discussing the effectiveness of bonus schemes to counter the problem of staff turnover.
Speaking to Hotelier on the sidelines of the event, E. Maria Haggo, director of spa, at The Ritz-Carlton Dubai said: “I think incentives work to an extent. It is an expected part of their compensation but I don’t believe it’s the key to motivation. I think motivation comes from the personal gratification you get from performing well.
We encourage staff to compete (nicely!) and we reward whoever gets the highest sale with non-financial things.
It could be something personal to them because everyone likes different things. I think it’s the pride of thinking ‘I won’, that is much more motivational than giving someone a 10% financial incentive”.
At Cleopatra Spa & Wellness, part of Wafi Health and Leisure in Dubai, spa manager Beverley Spencer said she focused on getting staff buy-in to boost motivation.
“In terms of motivating staff, I keep them very involved in the decision-making process and they’re kept well informed about what we’re doing and what we’re aiming for. We have a reward and recognition scheme so at the end of every quarter we have a recognition based on customer service, based on revenue, the highest retailer – they decide what prizes they want.
So they have more of a buy-in. I tend to have a fun environment so we have fun while we’re working. I tend to be on the floor and if I see anything I say ‘hey how can we make this better?’ I’m a people person, my staff are very important to me”.
Madeleine Olsson Nikitopoulos, senior director of spa, Middle East & Africa, Four Seasons Hotel Doha, revealed a very creative approach via a “swapping programme” with other spas in Doha.
“We identify who has sold the most, who has performed the most treatments and who has
generated the most revenue and then we select the prizes accordingly. We work with Hilton Doha, Sharq Village & Spa Doha and The St. Regis Doha, and our staff are given a treatment at one of our colleague’s spas.
Staff from hotels in the programme comes to us too and we want to wow them — we want them to go back and say ‘what a fantastic treatment’. It’s very valuable because the therapist experiences a treatment elsewhere then comes back and talks about it to the team,” says Nikitopoulos.
Sofitel’s Monsod said that where incentives are financial, “the biggest problem is getting an incentive scheme approved in the first place, as you find that whatever incentives you wanted to offer end up having to be reduced to get past your finance department and therefore lose their effectiveness”.
“Our staff know who in the market is offering what and if you can’t keep up with others then they will just leave,” he added.
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SPA PROMOTIONS
As well as incentivising staff, panellists also discussed ways to incentivise customers to choose your spa over the competitors. The consensus was firmly against discounting and daily deal sites, with spas instead choosing to focus on growing a repeat customer base.
“While they are used across the market, they have to be used sparingly as they can cheapen your brand,” said Cleopatra’s Spencer of vouchers.
“Discounting can be a much more effective tactic, with off-peak and on-peak pricing being a long-term alternative to what are only short-term solutions,” she added.
Hilton Worldwide director of spa operations and development MEA Sharon Barcock declared “The days of the two-for-one and the Groupon are long gone. We’ve all learned the hard way that it produces volume, but doesn’t necessarily produce the revenue,” she said.
Grosvenor House, Luxury Collection Hotels and Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort and Spa complex director of spas Galina Antoniouk revealed that the hotel had tried to promote its spa services by subscribing to coupon sites, but quickly had to stop.
“Some spas give so many discounts, how do they keep their standards up and what kind of clients do these offers also attract?” she asked.
“We went down that route and we were offering some spa services through the promotion websites but then we had to stop because the type of guests coming in did not match our profile so you have to prioritise because it might make it more harmful and you lose your other guests.
“Of course during off peak season you have to find a solution; you have to decide how much discount you give – do you give 50%, do you give 70%? At the end of the day you may end up spending more than you gain and it might be better to send all the staff on vacation,” Antoniouk added.
She said her hotels now focus on rewarding repeat customers for their loyalty.
“I think the best thing in this case is something like a loyalty programme, where they get one free treatment after they have finished five treatments or something like that, so that people feel valued.”
Barcock, however, believes it all comes down to knowing the market you are trying to attract and setting the right price from the beginning.
“I think you need to be very aware of the market and be a bit more structured in saying ‘this is the menu, this is the price.’ You need to be very aware of who you are trying to attract – is it a hotel guest or an outside guest? What market do you sit in? Are you in an area where guests have a whole day and want the full experience or do guests want to be in and out after a quick massage? If you set your price correctly from the very beginning, that alleviates some of the problems you may have,” she explained.
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LOOKING AHEAD
The Spa Summit concluded on day two with a case study on licensing for therapists via Dubai Health Authority, presented by Beverley Spencer at Cleopatra’s and Dr. Benazir Quraishi, medical director, Unani Medicine and Cupping Practitioner and assistant spa manager at Cleopatra Spa and Wellness.
The pair have recently met new legislation from DHA for the licensing of their massage therapists, and shared their experience with the audience, who had numerous questions as to how new regulations might affect them. Spencer and Quraishi could only comment, of course, on Cleopatra’s experience and it became apparent that different regulations may apply to day spas and hotel spas for example.
As of now, the licensing regulations are relatively new and yet to be enforced at hotels, although it is expected that all massage therapists will have to be licensed going forward. Spas with repeated licensing violations may face fines or even closure.
Anxiety regarding therapist licensing was common across the audience, with many delegates concerned about how to provide the right paperwork.
One issue seems to be that therapists either must already have appropriate certifications or at least two years experience working in Dubai before then taking the necessary certifications.
According to the regulations adhered to by Cleopatra’s, therapists must have 500 hours’ work experience, but this may be difficult to achieve across the industry, with delegates in a mini workshop after the session suggesting that a decrease in the requirement of hours would make licensing more realistic.
Regulation is ultimately a good thing, pointed out Jumeirah’s group director of spa Paul Hawco from the audience. As Hawco explained, while the process may be complicated, the result will be a properly regulated industry that can compete on the global spa scene.
Feedback and queries from the audience were collected at the end of the summit and will be passed on to DHA via a future meeting with a select group of spa operators already in contact with the authority regarding legislation. Hotelier Middle East will be following their progress.