Spa Resort Report: The Latest Health and Wellness News Around the World

Anantara Emei Resort & Spa in China offers a combination of luxury and wellness.

Anantara Emei Resort & Spa in China offers a combination of luxury and wellness.

Key findings released by Spafinder Wellness 365 from its 2013 State of Spa Travel report, which provides insight into emerging consumer trends in the North American spa travel market each year, indicate that the spa market is indeed growing significantly. Of the more than 300 North American travel agents surveyed, 75 percent reported seeing wellness tourism as a rising travel trend—up from 68 percent in 2012, which itself was nearly double what was reported in 2011.

That said, and with the summer vacation almost upon us, Travel Agent has rounded up some of the most recent developments on the spa resort front.

Asia

Wellness and spirituality often go hand in hand, especially in Asia. It is perhaps fitting therefore that the new Anantara Emei Resort & Spa has opened at the foot of China’s Mount Emei—one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s the third new hotel the Bangkok-based resort brand has opened in China in just over 18 months. Anantara Sanya Resort & Spa opened in late summer of 2012 followed by Anantara Xishuangbanna Resort & Spa one year later.

All three offer the Anantara Spa, where guests can experience both proven western therapies and ancient eastern techniques that have been handed down through the generations, enhanced by elixirs made of indigenous ingredients. An extensive menu of rejuvenating scrubs and wraps, personally prescribed facials, healing massages and carefully crafted signature rituals is available. 

The newest Anantara Spa has three luxury treatment rooms and three suites, where guests can enjoy such treatments as China’s Ancient Tea Journey, traditional Thai massage, Anantara Signature Massage and a luxury Chinese herbal bath.

Six Senses Resorts and Spas is launching a series of yogic programs. Discover Yoga and Yogic Detox are now available at all spas at all Six Senses resorts in Thailand, Vietnam, Maldives and Oman, as well as select partner spas. Discover Yoga is designed for novices and guests wishing to try a new form of body and mind exercise. Yogic Detox is suitable for more experienced yoga practitioners looking to cleanse the body and mind in a non-invasive way. In the third quarter of 2014, Yogic Sleep will be incorporated into the Spa Yogic Program series. Yogic Sleep will focus on yoga nidra, an ancient practice intended to induce full body relaxation and a deep meditative state of consciousness.

Spa Cenvaree, one of Thailand’s most luxurious and innovative spa brands, will be an integral part of Thailand-based Centara Hotels & Resorts’ first Laos hotel. The five-star Centara Grand Hotel Vientiane is scheduled to open in 2017.

Caribbean and Mexico

Just in time for summer vacation, Sunswept Resorts’ The Body Holiday/LeSport in St. Lucia is bringing back “WellFit Families,” available July 6 through August 31. The family-based fitness program, designed around the beach, will be run weekly. Mom, dad and the kids will spend a week learning the skills and developing the fitness that a beach lifeguard would have on an active vacation—from physical strength and cardiovascular fitness to First Aid CPR training. Build mental focus with Yoga Flow, and stamina on a bike ride, or basic sailing skills on catamarans. The last event is a Saturday morning team Beach-Athlon that brings together all the family’s training.

The Zen Garden at Bonaventure Resort & Spa’s aLaya Spa.

The Zen Garden at Bonaventure Resort & Spa’s aLaya Spa.

Following a brief closure to undergo an extensive enhancement program, Sandals Barbados will reopen its doors on January 28, 2015. When it does, it will offer the brand’s signature Red Lane Spa, with six new treatment rooms in traditional Barbadian architecture, including an exclusive VIP suite with private tub, outdoor shower, relaxation area and more. Reservations for Sandals Barbados are now being accepted.

In Los Cabos, wellness buffs and oenophiles can now indulge in the exclusive SOMMA WineSPA at Fiesta Americana Grand, the only spa in Mexico that incorporates wine into its treatments, such the signature Le Vin Chardonnay massages.

United States

Thanks to a new partnership with renowned personal trainer Billy Beck III, the aLaya Spa’s Fitness Center at Bonaventure Resort & Spa in Fort Lauderdale is now a BB3 Training Center and part of a network of South Florida gym and fitness centers. Visitors to the luxury spa can now combine its organic spa treatments with cutting-edge fitness training, nutritional counseling, motivational workshops and individual coaching under the direction of Beck and his team of BB3 Personal Training Professionals. aLaya Spa offers 31 treatments rooms; dedicated yoga, spinning and movement studios; a Zen garden; and a private spa pool.

Blackberry Farm in Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains is preparing to open its new Wellness Center & Spa in June. Like the hotel itself, the spa is designed in a rustic-chic style with reclaimed materials. It is set in a meadow and landscaped with herb gardens and pools. Programs will focus on fitness, health, and a balanced, sustainable lifestyle. (No detoxes or fasting.) Beyond the farm-inspired spa treatments, there will be steam rooms, lounges, one-to-one consultation areas, a classroom, and a juice bar.

The all-suite Delano Las Vegas will open at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino later this year and is now accepting room reservations for stays beginning September 1. With the opening of Delano Las Vegas, the Bathhouse Spa will introduce several signature services, including the Double the Pleasure Massage, performed in synchronicity by two massage therapists. Bathhouse also will debut a new Global Journeys series of treatments reflecting traditional rituals from India, Asia, Europe and the islands of the Pacific.