Sereno Spa at Park Hyatt Goa in India is inspired by ayurvedic and yogic traditions. Spa director D. Jaichandran Thampi explains how he integrates ancient ideas with contemporary spa principles.
Can you describe the general concept of the spa?
We wanted everything to have an Indian touch to it; when people come to India they want to have an authentic spa experience. Normally spas have a lot of aesthetics involved, we wanted to have a real Indian philosophy here, so we wanted to convert the aesthetics into wellbeing.
"The growing interest in the spa is a part of all the economic changes that are currently happening in India."
We have a lot of Indian traditional treatments; ayurveda and yoga are the two pillars on which we have built the spa's philosophy.
Ayurveda is a culture rather than a one-off experience, so people who are not used to it may not be able to accept all the theories initially. It's like typical Indian food: generally the food is very spicy, but not everyone may be able to receive it the authentic way - you have to get used to it slowly.
We have a lot of Indian traditional treatments; ayurveda and yoga are the two pillars on which we have built the spa's philosophy.
Ayurveda is a culture rather than a one-off experience, so people who are not used to it may not be able to accept all the theories initially. It's like typical Indian food: generally the food is very spicy, but not everyone may be able to receive it the authentic way - you have to get used to it slowly.
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That's why we've made slight changes to treatments so that everyone can experience it and gradually, over a period of time, make it a part of their lifestyle.
Another thing is that it's not a very strict regime that we are offering - some spas make you follow a specific course of treatment, but we try to accommodate things as per people's lifestyles. The people here are more important than the product.
Most of the time guests stay for five to seven days at the resort, but at the spa we have people that come for 14 to 21 days and repeat guests that have been coming for the last five years. They might come every day for a treatment.
What facilities does the spa have?
We have 16 suites, which includes five couples' suites, each with their own shower or steam. We wanted to minimise the need to walk to other facilities, because moving around sometimes creates a break in the flow of treatments. That's why we have converted most of the rooms into suites.
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