“We’re aiming to make the new BodyHoliday Algarve the best wellness holiday destination in the world,” says Andrew Barnard, CEO of BodyHoliday St Lucia.
Since opening in 1988, the resort has offered guests the opportunity to reboot their physical and mental health and wellbeing, while training with professional athletes including Randy Moss and Julien Alfred. It’s also renowned for its high-end spa and wellness treatments and activities.
After devising a rollout strategy over the last decade, Barnard is ready to reveal details of growth plans for the iconic all-inclusive wellness brand.
We’re looking to open 10-15 sites and intend to be a significant global player
Its first new destination, due to open in Portugal in late 2029, will mark the start of what he believes will be an exciting period of innovation for the business.
But this expansion isn’t simply about geography. In preparation for growth, BodyHoliday has formalised its operating structure, assembling both a senior executive team and non-executive board, with deep experience across global hospitality, finance, wellness and large-scale development. The move also signals a shift for the founder-led operation to being a business that’s engineered to scale.
Portugal will be funded and operated by Barnard and his team, with the aim of creating a management company capable of running multiple BodyHolidays. If the property in Portugal is well received, and Barnard says he feels in his bones that it will be, the plan is to open a further 10-15 BodyHoliday resorts globally in the next 15 years.
Why expand now?
It’s been going through our minds for about 10 years. Other operators are enjoying growth – SHA has moved to ‘our side’ of the world and now we’re coming to Europe. You realise you’re not bound by geography.
As an island nation that relies on international guests, St Lucia is also very vulnerable to small changes in the market. With aviation fuel costs rising, prices have shot up and now only British Airways flies direct from the UK.
A few years ago, an ash cloud from Iceland shut down transatlantic air space for weeks – what if it had lasted a year? You also have to consider the future of aviation with climate concerns.
All these factors were tipping the scales and we thought we can’t just sit here and wait to be killed.
How are you preparing for growth?
I realised early on how formulaic the financial structure in the European hotel and leisure industry is. Deals between developers, operators and equity providers are all agreed on a spreadsheet – the brand, the ratios, the financing – making it incredibly difficult for an operator with 250-rooms in St Lucia to break through [BodyHoliday and sister resort, StolenTime combined].
We wanted to do something different and realised the complexity of it demanded a really powerful leadership team.
I know it will work – I know it in my bones
For years, the business has lived in my father’s head and in mine. We’ve run it and lived it. At the same time, I’ve seen other operators grow quickly and then find their systems and processes were completely inadequate. We were determined that wouldn’t happen to us.
Our leadership team and non-executive board bring us discipline and rigour that will stand up to any auditor in the world.
How do you collaborate with the team?
It’s a huge cultural shift. We have opposing views sometimes and we’re all forceful characters. They’re beginning to see that the founder-led approach is what truly creates the magic and helping to refine and standardise it, while keeping a clear focus on what makes a BodyHoliday a BodyHoliday.
The team includes Jeremy Plummer, a six-time returning guest. He’s been fundamental to pulling the team together and his energy is unbelievable.
Jean-Charles Denis brings massive experience in hotel finance and governance and Indu Brar is incredibly meticulous, insistent on changing processes now because it will cost us in the future if we don’t.
I’ve never worked like this in my life. It’s go, go, go and it’s as terrifying as it is fun.
What makes BodyHoliday special?
Many of our counterparts, such as Lanserhof and Canyon Ranch, take a different approach with the programmes they offer. Guests don’t visit us to get diagnosed to the nth degree – we’re more about lifestyle.
We have a beautiful location and pride ourselves on personalisation, but focus on the tried-and-tested modalities of simply staying fit, eating well and feeling emotionally balanced, while also enjoying unpredictability and the fun things in life.
It also comes down to the primary reason for travel. Wellness is now ubiquitous in hospitality, but in consumers’ minds, brands have known values. People visit Aman for status and Four Seasons for its undisputed standards. In our case, it’s for transformative, emotional, physical and spiritual experience.
Who are your customers?
We’ve evolved over the years, but fundamentally we still cater for stressed-out executives. The difference today is that they have less time than ever. This doesn’t mean shorter stays, it means people are combining their leisure time with wellness.
We have a high repeat visit rate – 50 per cent annually and up to 80 per cent in high season. The UK has traditionally been our biggest market, accounting for 80 per cent of visitors. However, since Virgin Atlantic stopped direct flights from London, it makes up 45 per cent of business, with the rest coming mostly from the US.
Why Portugal?
Because we’ve always had such a big British clientele. You can get a return flight from the UK for under £200 (US$273, €232) in high season. That’s a game-changer for us.
When we stepped onto the land, we knew immediately it was unique
It’s also in the EU, so its easy to do business and accessible to 350 million people. Parts of Europe bake at 45˚C in the summer, but in Portugal, the average is 30˚C and we get the Atlantic breeze.
The food, the culture, the landscapes and the people also add so much magic.
Tell us about the new property
My father, Craig, and I searched Europe for the right location. When we stepped onto the land in Portugal, we knew immediately it was unique.
It’s a 26-acre site in the Eastern Algarve with 100,000sq m of beautiful, white, cotton-soft sandy beach – pretty much the last plot of its size on that coast. The development occupies a rare and tranquil setting next to Ria Formosa, a protected marshland and nature reserve.
Gensler are the architects and Clodagh will lead the spa design. There will be 175 accommodation units and – in a first for us – a residential component of 30 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments to reduce the risk.
Kevin Bundy is a brilliant project director and we’re due to start building in early 2027, with an estimated opening of late 2029.
It’s going to be a different kind of experience. Ikos/Sani has subdivided the all-inclusive market to become the best for families in the Mediterranean. We aim to do that for all-inclusive wellness and intend to be disruptors in that space.
Tell us about the wellness offering…
We’ll offer our signature BodyHoliday sports programmes, cutting-edge fitness facilities and multiple pools. The 40,000sq ft wellness centre will feature more than 40 treatment rooms and a 50-minute daily treatment – such as a facial, massage, scrub or wrap – is included in each holiday programme.
Ayurveda is core to who we are and we’ll also absorb the local wellness culture because that’s the fun stuff and it’s something you can offer wherever you are – from the saunas of Finland and Sweden and the thalassotherapy of France and Greece, to the hammams of the Middle East and temazcals of Mexico.
We want to create a management company capable of running multiple BodyHolidays
Mia Kyricos, one of our non-exec directors, will bring a massive depth to our wellness offering, ensuring it’s relevant, up-to-date and well-structured. She’s bigger than life and full of love and that aligns beautifully with who we are. Alice Avis, with her business acumen and beauty industry expertise, is fantastic and brings huge knowledge from a product and standardisation point of view.
What’s the rollout strategy?
We’re looking to open 10–15 properties in the next 15 years and intend to be a significant global player through our management company.
BodyHoliday Algarve will be our ‘showroom’ because we need proof of concept and once we’ve proven the model, finding our future partners will be a lot easier.
What world regions will you target?
We’re looking at further sites across Europe, as well as considering areas of the Middle East, while Costa Rica and Belize are also possibilities.
Any other ambitions for brand expansion?
I’m keenly watching what Six Senses is doing with its urban Six Senses Place clubs (see p66). That’s an exciting move.
What will you look for in future sites?
There has to be an attachment to nature and a body of water because the human spirit feels that blue-green connection. But the location doesn’t have to be coastal – I could see it working by a lake in the Alps.
In some ways, the advantage of a destination spa is that it’s difficult to copy within an existing hotel footprint, so we’ll focus on new-builds and only consider taking over properties where there’s flexibility and potential for expansion.
Is the ultimate goal to sell?
I won’t know until I get there. My family has been in hospitality for 60 years and now our son – who’s grown up with BodyHoliday and is super healthy and fitness-orientated – is showing interest. There’s too much love in this right now to call it.
