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Incredible spas resonate with guests at a deep level, filling their senses and engaging their emotions in a way that makes the experience powerful, profound and pleasurable. Yet given that the industry aspires to engage mind body and spirit, too many spas are just plain dreary.
In this year’s Spa Business Handbook, we present our annual trends – newly branded as Spa Foresight™ (see p114) – and suggest spas could make stronger bonds with guests if they were more mindful of the importance of emotional engagement.
There are many ways to engage the senses and prompt an emotional response – some low-tech, some hi-tech – and all are deserving of consideration. If spas are to achieve deeper emotional relationships with guests, they must work with them all – sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch – and also sense of time, hunger and thermoception (heat and cold) and – not forgetting, where appropriate – their sense of humour.
We come at this view from a unique perspective. Leisure Media – the organisation behind the Spa Business Handbook – also publishes Attractions Management magazine in the entertainment industry and we’re aware of many visual, aural, touch, 4D and sensory products with exciting potential for spas. Imagine a room with 360? screens in which guests can choose the setting – a place they long to visit, a sunset beach, a bluebell wood or the mountains in spring; or personalised environments created using augmented reality technology.
In terms of sound, the Motion Waves system (see p232) plays variations of a noise – such as the movement of wind, a playing harp, bird song or bells – at different pitches, tones and volumes according to a person’s movement that’s tracked by sensors.
The combined results can be profound: Charles Spence, an expert in sensory perception, says that if all sensory cues are pulling in the same direction, the overall impact is greater than that of the individual components. Considering the many different possibilities there are to engage the senses, the opportunities for spas to make a difference are endless.
In a world where imbalance often accumulates quietly, Wildsmith unveils its newest
wellbeing innovation: Silent Loads, an approach designed to meet the needs of modern spa
guests with precision and depth. [more...]
Incredible spas resonate with guests at a deep level, filling their senses and engaging their emotions in a way that makes the experience powerful, profound and pleasurable. Yet given that the industry aspires to engage mind body and spirit, too many spas are just plain dreary.
In this year’s Spa Business Handbook, we present our annual trends – newly branded as Spa Foresight™ (see p114) – and suggest spas could make stronger bonds with guests if they were more mindful of the importance of emotional engagement.
There are many ways to engage the senses and prompt an emotional response – some low-tech, some hi-tech – and all are deserving of consideration. If spas are to achieve deeper emotional relationships with guests, they must work with them all – sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch – and also sense of time, hunger and thermoception (heat and cold) and – not forgetting, where appropriate – their sense of humour.
We come at this view from a unique perspective. Leisure Media – the organisation behind the Spa Business Handbook – also publishes Attractions Management magazine in the entertainment industry and we’re aware of many visual, aural, touch, 4D and sensory products with exciting potential for spas. Imagine a room with 360? screens in which guests can choose the setting – a place they long to visit, a sunset beach, a bluebell wood or the mountains in spring; or personalised environments created using augmented reality technology.
In terms of sound, the Motion Waves system (see p232) plays variations of a noise – such as the movement of wind, a playing harp, bird song or bells – at different pitches, tones and volumes according to a person’s movement that’s tracked by sensors.
The combined results can be profound: Charles Spence, an expert in sensory perception, says that if all sensory cues are pulling in the same direction, the overall impact is greater than that of the individual components. Considering the many different possibilities there are to engage the senses, the opportunities for spas to make a difference are endless.
Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai in Hoi An, Vietnam, has put together a Global Wellness Day
(GWD) agenda with activations rooted in nature and shaped by four pillars of Joy – in
alignment with the day’s theme #JoyMagenta.
The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the 2026 event in
Phuket, Thailand, later this year with the theme: The Science, Art and Soul of Wellness.
Auko, an all-inclusive development, is opening in Phong Nha in Vietnam in Q3 2026, with a
series of 30 tented eco-lodges and wellness hospitality operations by Lumina Wellbeing.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Naples Beach Club, a Four Seasons Resort, has opened a 2,800sq m spa called The Sanctuary,
with the design and concept inspired by the Native American people that populated Florida’s
Southwest coast – the Calusa.
Swire Hotels’ luxury hospitality brand Upper House has revealed it will roll out its two-day
House of Healing retreats at its three hotels in Hong Kong, Chengdu and Shanghai.
LVMH-owned beauty house Guerlain will launch up to five spas with partners a year as part of
its plan to expand globally, according to the brand’s international spa and wellness director,
Diane Davody.
A new global study by Kevin Kelly and Peter Yesawich, called WELLSurvey 2.0, has revealed
more than half of consumers in the UK, US and Germany would not choose numerous high-
profile wellness resort brands for a future trip.
Luxury hospitality and wellness pioneer Jeremy McCarthy has launched Leisure Alchemy, a
digital platform that will provide professionals with strategic guidance on how to build
transformational leisure experiences that drive profit.
In a world where imbalance often accumulates quietly, Wildsmith unveils its newest
wellbeing innovation: Silent Loads, an approach designed to meet the needs of modern spa
guests with precision and depth. [more...]
