The state of the spa…

Tuesday, 05. February 2008, 20:09

Spas and the ethereal image on which they float are at once glamorous and luxurious. Beautiful people waft through their doors and wannabe beauties come to buff up their appearance.

But as the first-ever National Spa and Wellness Congress held in Antalya (Jan. 17-20, 2008) revealed, without sophisticated, highly skilled management and motivated, professional planning, the exterior glamour melts away like spent skin cells. The congress also highlighted a global industry worth upward of $100 billion with enormous potential for Turkey.

 

However well developed the Turkish spa sector looks mystique is deceptive. The thoroughbred façade disguises a workhorse infrastructure. This is an industry in its infancy, and the First International Spa and Wellness Congress was a milestone.



It was a bit like a stew with everything in the kitchen thrown into the pot, stirred around and brought up to boiling point. Now, the ingredients need to be carefully considered and long-term plans and solutions explored and implemented.



This was above all an opportunity to gain an overall picture of the Turkish spa sector. On the one hand is health tourism, on the other, spa and wellness tourism. Should they be marketed together or separately? The beauty and cosmetic business has succinctly become part of spa-speak and the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry is promoting thermal tourism.



Day spas are much discussed. Complementary treatments like acupuncture, reflexology and aromatherapy were on the congress agenda. Do these target sick people or well people who want to reach higher levels of health? There were eminent speakers on geological peloids (mud, clay and mosses), fangotherapy, cosmetology, phyto-pharmacology, anti-aging, spa-goer profiles and spa marketing. A condominium construction company attended the congress because a spa and wellness center is the showpiece of their lifestyle community near Alanya.



The roots of spa tourism are significant. Andrew Jacka, president of the Thai Spa Association, explained how spa tourism in Thailand gained credibility when the concepts of spa and wellness were separated from the somewhat murkier entertainment industry. In Canada, spas have their roots in the nation’s sports and health culture. In Turkey, tourism gave spas prominence.



There was no sign of the Turkish Health Ministry even though they own or partner hotels around many of Turkey’s thermal mineral spas. An element of competition exists with the Culture and Tourism Ministry over health and spa/wellness tourism. Each sector is trying to work with the other more proactively to further the spa potential.



If targeting foreign tourists is the primary goal, local customers can be overlooked. Turkish folk are in fact better spa customers, even though the average stay at a spa hotel is one-and-a-half days. Most guests regard a scrub and massage as a “spa.” Japan and France have approximately 8 to 12 million local spa-goers: Spa-going is part of a wholesome lifestyle theory. Germany has about 300 spa hotels that have traditionally been associated with health and wellbeing. Turkey counts approximately 100 spa hotels and between 1,500 and 1,800 natural hot springs that pump out therapeutic, mineral-laden waters. Romans were devoted to them; so one could ask why an aqua renaissance has taken 1,700 years.



The Culture and Tourism Ministry has produced a master plan that, along with other things, plans to develop thermal villages around crater lakes or existing hot springs.