Global luxury spa operator ESPA is opening a number of new facilities in cities across Asia, and has introduced a range of new treatments that are specially tailored to the needs of travelling business clientele.
The company’s partnership with The Ritz-Carlton will see its spas being featured in a large number of the hotel group's new Asian properties planned for the next five years. This July, ESPA also opened a new 10,000sqm luxury spa at Resort World Sentosa in Singapore.
Tracey Chappell, director of spa management for ESPA, said that at this new wellness facility, along with several of its existing Ritz-Carlton spas (in Tokyo, Shanghai Pudong, and Sanya), has introduced new treatments specially designed for time-poor corporate travellers. For guests arriving on long-haul flights, there is evening sleep therapy to help adjust the body clock, together with an energising equaliser to help them wake up in the morning. The spas are operating longer hours to cater to people arriving outside normal times, with the Sentosa location open until 2200.
The spas are also offering new options for people on a tight schedule. There are ESPA "tapas" packages, which let people select short treatments. Chappell said that at the Sentosa spa these were proving popular among business people on lunch breaks. There are features that aim to maximise the effectiveness of even a quick spa session, such as new vitality pools that massage with heat and water, believed to make treatment that follows up to 50 per cent more effective. ESPA has also introduced beds for visitors to take short but important "cat naps".
At the new Sentosa spa there is a wing dedicated to massage chairs where people can get “quick stress busting treatments” – shoulder and scalp massages – without having to get undressed.
Another treatment package suitable for business people, Chappell said, was ESPA Time. Although this is 2 hours long, it is efficient time-wise because a single therapist administers all the treatments and also chooses the nature of the programme, so that the visitor does not need to make any decisions themselves.
For more information, visit www.espaonline.com
Nicholas Olczak
