Wellness can mean many things to many people, depending on the type of facility, its geographical location and the wider culture. It’s difficult for the consumer to differentiate between the many meanings of a word that is not clearly defined.

Historically, ‘wellness’ is a very Germanic word, which in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, is much more about the medical aspect of treatment. Today’s consumers are educated, and their expectations are very high, so you can’t afford to play around with wellness.

Consumer confusion is dangerous for the industry, and if you’re going to deliver a product or a treatment, it has to be delivered with integrity. Personally, I prefer the word ‘wellbeing’: a combination of lifestyle and prevention delivered through traditional spa, health and beauty treatments, together with complementary therapies like acupuncture and ayurveda, and nutrition and fitness.

I think there’s a distinction to be made between the offering of traditional wellness destinations with doctors on staff, as opposed to the integrative wellbeing approach that’s growing within the spa industry. When working with complementary practitioners, it’s important to define what modalities are accepted and insurable within each country of operation. Every geographic area of the world is different, so before you start putting together programmes that require specific practitioners, you need to know whether those practitioners can be licenced and insured there. The higher up the medical ladder you go, the harder it is to obtain the right insurance.

Another challenge is in having the management in place with the knowledge and experience to select and understand the various complementary practitioners’ modalities. You’ll need a spa director or lead therapist who has the capability to select and build the right team for your destination, as well as having the skillset to manage the knowledge and personalities involved.

My advice to mainstream spas looking to deliver a wellness offering is to really think about who you are, what you’re trying to do, what your commercial equation is – and ultimately, if you can’t do wellness well, then don’t do it at all!

Susan Harmsworth is the founder of the ESPA brand, with a portfolio of some 600 spas across 60 countries.

Details: www.espaskincare.com

For us, the concept of wellness is when the body, mind, and spirit are in harmony. Health is not simply the absence of illness, but a person’s optimal state of physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.

There is a growing interest in wellness in our industry, and while the impact of this on the individual is generally positive, it is a difficult journey for mainstream spas to take. It’s hard to find expert professionals, especially when there’s sometimes a disparity between Oriental and occidental medicine.

There can be problems in making East and West work together in harmony, with doctors and practitioners not used to accepting alternative therapies to what they have studied.

It can also be much more difficult for a spa to break even in wellness; from our experience, you have to be prepared to lose money in the first three years of operation. There aren’t enough specialist channels or agencies for this segment, so wellness destinations are competing for a small pool of top talent; as an example, at our clinic we have 93 suites, catered by a team of 300 experts from across 38 different nationalities, working to ensure guests achieve their health targets.

For us, wellbeing is individual – a holistic approach customised to the needs of each guest. We significantly improve people’s lives by addressing their complete, long-term health – an approach with which mainstream spas may struggle.

Alfredo Bataller Pineda joined the family company SHA in 2006, becoming CEO of SHA Wellness Clinic, a 5* medical wellness clinic in Alicante, Spain, in 2008.

Details: www.shawellnessclinic.com

In the context of Brenners Medical Care, wellness reflects the idea that medical diagnostics and treatment can be performed in the ambience and quality of a 5-star grand hotel.

We believe that in order to be taken seriously in supplying such a medical wellness-orientated service, we need to perform to the highest level of quality. Dealing with lifestyle medicine, diagnostics and therapeutic medical procedures obviously requires specific skills and specialist knowledge, as well as meeting legal requirements and the understanding that medical treatments are not comparable to those offered in a spa surrounding.

Brenners has medical professionals who are self-employed, in their own premises, working closely together with a team of doctors as well as staff from the hotel and spa. This requires a much smaller investment and financial risk for the hotel and spa than trying to build up a medical wellness service of which the hotel management has no solid knowledge.

Nevertheless, understanding the needs of all involved – as well as the exchange of necessary information and skills – is crucial for its success. Before considering a wellness service, mainstream spas must fully understand what the concept entails. I don’t think that spas can deliver a combined approach if they don’t have the required medical skills on-site. Neither can they achieve it if they don’t have the specialist knowledge in place to select the right partner for the concept, or have the right location to be able to work together in structuring ideas and programmes.

I think there’s a difference between medical wellness and giving wellness a ‘medical touch.’ For spas to be able to do the latter credibly – and also to a high level of competence – they will need to partner with medical services like physiotherapists and osteopathic-orientated therapists, and to include things like nutrition counselling and lifestyle management education, as well as programmes like yoga and Pilates. This will lift their wellness facilities into medical wellness institutions.

Dr Harry F. König is head of medical care at Brenners Park Hotel & Spa, a renowned spa and healthcare destination in Baden-Baden, Germany, with a focus on preventative healthcare.

Details: www.brenners.com

Wellness is a balance between the psychological, emotional, physical and social aspect of a person. Keeping all of these in balance paves the way to feeling and staying healthy. Facilities like ours strive to provide the surroundings to deliver this feeling of balance. We offer the traditional spa staples, but we are also able to diagnose and treat people’s health problems within our medical facilities.

We’re seeing a shift from a chemical stance within medicine, with its use of different drugs and orthomolecular substances, to the more physical side of treatments. In keeping with this, treatments and strategies like biofeedback and bio-resonance systems are increasingly available. I think it will take a few more years of research to establish such systems as standard in spas, as well as wellness institutions.

Wellness means much more than just the offering of a pampering treatment. Having the specialist knowledge and a thorough training in the philosophy of the approach is vitally important. In addition, the treatment environment and the wider facility have to be built around the philosophy of wellness.

Another challenge is the lack of enough qualified medical doctors prepared to head-up medical wellness facilities. Most doctors are trained in treating disease, but not necessarily in its prevention or with a holistic approach. The more we train doctors in preventative medicine, the more qualified medical wellness facilities we will see.

Dr Harald Stossier is medical director at the Vivamayr Medical Clinic in Austria, combining Mayr medicine with advanced diagnostics, holistic medical treatments, orthomolecular medicine and meticulous diet plans.

Details: www.vivamayr.com