The Trend Of The Wellness Industry

The Trend Of The health Industry inductionThere has been a considerable rise in the trend of the health Industry mainly in Asia-Pacific. As reference resort hotels atomic number 18 develop in the industry, it seems it is slake rather vague as to what the future holds for this crabby sector. The rising aw arness of people towards personalized health and turn e actuallywhereth is creating a bespeak for a service role that is currently evolving to cater to the demands of this progressing grocery trend. This t distributivelying will investigate possible outcomes for computer addresss health clubs, Mandala pissing blot, in the designated geographical bea. accentThe globularization of soundness products much(prenominal) as resort hotels argon increasing and evolving, whereas the philosophies and usages of the east culture be penetrating the western context and vise versa. These spas atomic number 18 growing by incorporating strong-arm, emotional and spirit ual activities coupled with the pop psychology that mixes more esoteric coiffures to raise the level of mental health. (Smith and Puczko, 2008)Wellness is specify as The multidimensional rural ara of being hale, where midland and outer worlds be in harmony a heightened state of consciousness enabling you to be fully present in the moment and respond au whencetic all in ally to either situation from the deep inner well of your being. Wellness is an ever-evolving journey to a heightened awakening of the consciousness and working towards a fitter state in regards to the somatogenic, mental and emotional sense of wellbeing, and then helping an singular to farther feel life to its fullest with the greatest longevity. (Bodecker and Cohen, 2008)Figure 1 The Expanded Wellness ModelSource Mueller and Kaufmann 2001 p.6 all overview of the Wellness IndustryA considerable sum of visitors going to modern day health and health focus ons ar for the virtually routine not aw ar gon of the historical and cultural patronagegrounds of the treatments they experience. It would be not so far fetched to say that these visitors stupefy not literalise that the Ayurvedic practices from India date stamp venture as far as 5000 BC, or that the current make-up brands that women are employ these age hold alike cosmetic traits to those utilise my the Egyptian women in 3000 BC. The early recorded documentation of Chinese medicinal methods date back to 1000 BC, however in Western societies Chinese medical checkup exam methods are regarded as exotic and somewhat sweet in their perception. check to a study made by the watering hole Reoceanrch Fellowship, the earliest reference to so called magical mend waters is 1700 BC and as the classic physician and philosopher of the Hellenistic age, Hippocrates, once tell that water is still, afterward all, the best. (Health Wellness Tourism)There is an increasing awareness of the healing properties of water, whether it be thermal, sea or mineral water. Civilizations such as the Greeks and Romans understood the various health related aspects of water treatments and thus were quite foc employ on physical fitness and cleanliness through such practices. On the some other hand, other ancient civilizations from The centre of attention East and Asia and other indigenous people around the world were already aware of the health benefits of other practices like herb tea medicines, yoga, knead, speculation and other related spiritual practices, for centuries before the cultivation of health related practices in Europe. Although by Western warnings, the character reference of life in umteen split of the world are seemingly low or of poor quality in comparison to Western societies, India and Africa evoke be cited as both break out examples. These people living in such poor standards realize developed their own expressive styles of nurtureing their wellbeing, although such conditions of depri vation favor the ecstasy of illness over wellness. These practices of preserving health and wellbeing are continuing to give room more and more popular among day spa operators and subsequently the visitors of these days spas are growing interests keen enough to want them to visit the origins or homes of these practices such as Yoga and Siamese massage. (Health Wellness Tourism)The term health club, is an adapted acronym for Solus Per Aqua, it can be translated as health through water. (Leavy and Bergel, 2002) consort to Associate prof Rujirutana Madhachitara, PhD of Penn State University in her paper, Opening Up a Services market The Thai watering hole Industry, From what we learn in the classroom and witness in real business life, market usually do not grow as explosively as health spas have d superstar in Thailand. Hotels and resorts along with entrepreneurs have recognized the potential of spa increase in Asia, it is even arguable to an extent that recent trend of spas has impacted the mettle of the Hospitality in the region.Intelligent resorts came up with the watering place Benchmark political plat act upon across the major Asia Pacific markets and summarized the findings in the table below (Garrow, 2007) add-in 1 Asia Pacific Spa Industry overviewMalaysia Since the year 2002, Malaysias spa offshoot has increased by 200% and continues to foretell increased appendage.Indonesia Is home to the larger spas in regards to indoor space and more than half of them are destination spas, inside the region it is also second most affordable coterminous to the Philippines.Philippines Is the smallest in terms of market size moreover now regardless it also possesses on average, the most numerous amount of treatment rooms, studies show that thither is also strong potential for growth in this sector over the coming years.Singapore relatively, the country has a mature market scarcely is still predicted to grow at 11% annually over the upcoming yea rs. There is a considerable amount of day spas of which half are said to be salon type oriented spas.Taiwan Over 81% of Taiwans 300 spa facilities were day spas, a large crowd of their spas use group brand names, whilst spa franchises are very common. maturement rate is said to be slow in the coming years. turn off 2 Asia-Pacific spherical Spa studyThe Asia-Pacific spa industry is the speedy growing region on a global basis, however it is yet relatively young. A larger proportion of spas are preset in emerging markets while resort/hotels spas are currently leading victimization. Typically, destinations spas are regarded as spa resorts. Growing but yet underdeveloped health resorts in a sense. In comparison to Europe, spa revenue enhancements in the Asia-Pacific are 35% lower and 19% lower on a global average, however hotel spas are only 3.75% to 5.8% lower respectively. Whilst in terms of staffing, hotel spas are at an average of 27 employees per establishment and 17 per spa . Intelligent Spas Global Benchmark Report, May 2009, states that the treatment room occupancy in the Asia-Pacific is 37% higher in comparison to other regions, 45% of total revenue accounts for payroll, and with an average treatment rate of US$77 it is the lowest economically among all regions. (Samantha Foster)The term Destination Spa holds a peculiar(prenominal) standard of luxury for spa-goers, as they were places where the rich and famous would go to slim down. These days destination spas offer more than vindicatory a luxurious way to get slim fast, they offer a variety of products that cater to the general wellness of their customers. Such go offered are healthier diet alternatives, lifestyle lectures, yoga seminars and more traditional methods of energy attunement to find your own sense of inner and outer balance. (Leavy and Bergel 2002) Mandala Spa brands itself as a destination spa incorporating all the fore mentioned services and more, in 2005 they won the prestigiou s Asia Spa prize for best destination spa of the year and spa treatment of the year. Since then they have continued to win awards in 2006, 2007, and 2009. Since its inauguration in 2001, Mandala Spa has touched the lives of some(prenominal) people and has bad from a four-villa Day Spa to a full fledged Wellness Resort and Destination Spa. (http//www.mandalaspa.com)AimsThe source will conduct an in-depth interrogation on what the future holds for Destination Spas in Asia Pacific, focusing on a developing boutique Destination Spa brand, Mandala Spa as a prime reference.ObjectivesTo review literature nigh the Wellness Industry with emphasis on Destination Spas.To investigate the trends and variables influencing the development of the Wellness Industry with focus on the Destination Spa sector.To sympathise the strategies that Mandala Spa is using for its success and how they will use these for future development or expansionandTo recommend any findings to Mandala Spa and the Asia Pacific Spa and Wellness Coalition for the boilersuit benefit of the industry and for future researchCHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEWThe Concept of Wellness Tourism jibe to (Verschuren, 2004) Wellness tourism is very diverse from health tourism as wellness tourism is considered a unique product within the health tourism constituent thus it is not a category in itself but a sub category of health tourism.Figure 1According to (Kaspar 1996), health tourism is the sum of all the relationships and phenomena resulting from a swop of location and residence by people in order to promote, perk up and, as appropriate, restore physical, mental and social well-being while using health services and for whom the place where they are staying is uncomplete their principle nor lasting place of residence or work.By definition of (Mueller and Kaufmann 2000), following (Kaspar1996), wellness tourism can be the sum of all the relationships and the phenomena resulting from a switch of location and res idence by people whose main motive is to write or promote their health. They stay in hotels that are specialized in providing the individual do with the appropriate personal know-how. To further the statement these guests wait and expect certain service packages that are comprehensive in nature, such packages may include physical fitness, meditations, dietary advise, beauty safeguard and reproduction.According to The Inter home(a) Spa Association (ISPA) spas are defined as entities abandoned to enhancing overall well-being through a variety of professional services that encourage the renewal of top dog, body and spirit (ISPA, 2006)A comprehensive compartmentalisation of spas has been set outd by the International Spa Association is listed belowClub Spa Day Spa Spa Hotel Holistic Spa Medical Spa Bath Resort Spa Sport Spa Structured Spa Definition of a Destination SpaThere is no universally accepted definition of destination spas, rather the following academics present these definitionsDestination spas predecessors were referred to as fat farms out-of-pocket to their somewhat rigorous detoxification and weight pass programmes. These fat farms were perceived as the to-be places for communities high societies, yet most of these establishments were not deemed a pleasant holiday experience as most of them were ran similar to boot camps in a sense, where their guests would undertake restricted diets or continence seminars where the promised results of weight loss would be achieved, however in no elbow room pleasant. Few of these fat farms would feature beauty treatments, residue or meditation programmes and even less abided in education in terms of how to fight back their missed weight, thus guests would eventually gain the weight back. The destination spa of today offer more than just weight loss programmes but are now geared towards more meaningful exercise programmes, education on lifestyle, wellness seminars, consultancy on diet and cleansing, an d some offer medical tests or evaluations. (The Spa Encyclopedia)Destination spas are built with the primary goal of providing spa/wellness activities for guests as compared to resort/hotel spas whos primary purpose is to denounce their rooms while the spa is an augmenting facility, the purpose of destination spas are the little opposite of this. (Gibson 2008)Destination Spas are a place where visitors go for shortsighted retreats/wellness programmes that are somewhat life changing or produce a high impact on the guests lifestyle. (Spa bodywork a guide for massage therapists)Asia Pacific Wellness TraditionsThe wellness traditions of Asia follow a more holistic come out to health and wellbeing, treating the mind, body and spirit as one. Their way of healing is by finding the amount of the problem and supporting the body in healing itself therefore boosting the bodys natural immunity against illness and disease. Therefore the approach through natural healing, in Asia, is rooted in spirituality and tradition rather than on a basis of natural assets.In japan the traditional bathing establishments of onsens, which are Japanese hot springs, are normally visited by locals in seek of meditation or relaxation and has grown in popularity among the tourists. Reiki and Shiatsu are two of the most prevalent wellness therapies from the Japanese culture and are currently very common treatments provided by western spas.The legacy of Indias historic culture has existed before that of Ancient Egypt as even scholars regard Ayurveda (the science of life) as one of the oldest healing systems in the world. It is still commonly the first form of traditional healing in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka.The traditional forms of Chinese medicine were focused on an individuals overall state through a variety of therapies, such as Chi (the overall flow of life force or energy of a person), Shen (the persons mind that is responsible for their mental abilities and consciousness), and Jing ( The governing essence of a persons vitality). Traditional Chinese medicine, similar to Indian Ayurveda, leans towards the aspects of preventive and holistic approaches towards health in regards to physical movement, spirituality, diet and emotional wellbeing. A myriad of therapies are offered, some of the most popular to mention are Tai Chi, Qi Gong, herbal medicines, and acupuncture which focus on the flow of energy throughout the body.Thailand is currently said to be the leading country in spa development within Asia, featuring a wide array of services, products, aesthetics and centres. The basic principles of Wat Pho traditional Thai massage and the Lana traditions of Northern Thailand are what constitute the concepts of Thai spas. The Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Wat Pho, fixed in the capital city of Bangkok by the Grand Palace, is where traditional Thai massage was born. During the era before the temple was built, the area was a site for the practice of traditional Thai me dicine that has its relational origins from Ayurveda.Malaysia has a set of unique spa programmes and ambiences through the incorporation of village or kampung traditions along with the wellness traditions practiced in the royal courts. Pressure orient and long stroke massage techniques which are the basis of Urut, the traditional Malay massage, which is the main feature of the services offered along with traditional post-natal care in womens health programmes. The foundation of these therapies are based on causative surmisal building on the organizing principles of cold and hot, damp and dry and of the natural elements air, fire, water and earth, derived from links to Ayurveda.Indonesias mainstay of promoting wellness and beauty comes from Jamu herbalism, traditionally it lies in the center of managing the populations healthcare. The spiritual approaches to wellness, along with traditional massage techniques and fresh herbal ingredients, are highly incorporated in Balinese and Ind onesian spas.Vietnam, regarded now as the new Thailand amongst south east Asiatic investment circles due to its promising frugality and influx of new beach, golf and health resort developments. The main medicinal tradition of the country is referred to as Thuoc Nam of which is based more on traditional folk knowledge. A Buddhist monk and scholar, Tue Tinh, developed Thuoc Nam into a national system. He consolidated all the local medicinal knowledge from Vietnam and accomplished clinics within monasteries along with herbal gardens coupled with educating the public on the herbal home medicine. (Dung and Bodeker 2001)The Philippines, being an archipelago, has its traditional medicinal techniques deeply rooted in the multitude of ethnics groups found on its thousand of islands. Its traditional massage practice is known as Hilot and is just as diverse in techniques, practices and tradition as it varies from region to region within the country. It is however being standardized, and thu s growing ever more popular among the spa programmes in the Philippines. (Marana and topaz 2006)Key Theories on SpasCompare and contrast an approximate of 3 describe theories here, identify who your subject matter experts are through seeing who are the names who are always cited in the various journals and books you have on Spa. Support with some influences, I think you have one dumbfound in your Chapter II alreadyFigure 1. Maslows Hierarchy of Needs and Schtte and Ciarlantes Asian Equivalent Model. Adapted from (Athena H. N. Mak, Kevin K. F. Wong and Richard C. Y. Chang)Maslows pecking order of necessarily and the Asian equivalent weight modelTourist motivation embraces psychological as well as physiological reflectionts because travel is expected to satisfy different levels of needs such as psychological (e.g. intrinsic, personal and interpersonal rewards) and physiological needs (e.g. food, shelter, safety, health and fitness) (Witt and Wright, 1992). Maslows (1970) hi erarchy of needs is one of the most popular theories of motivation used by researchers to study tourist motivation (Iso- Ahola, 1980). Maslow proposes that human needs as motivators form a five-level hierarchy comprising of physiological, safety, revel/ belonging, esteem and self-actualisation needs. He further states that the lower-level needs should be satisfied first before an individual could move up to higher-level ones in the hierarchy. Mill and Morrison (1985) cite that motivation is a phenomenon that takes place when an individual seeks to satisfy a need, and suggest a correlation between Maslows hierarchy of needs and tourist motivation.Maslows model is based on Western culture, so Schtte and Ciarlante (1998) have questioned whether self-actualisation (a personally directed need) is existent among Asian consumers. They contend that Asian countries predominately have a collectivist culture (Hofstede, 1980), so the idea that a personally directed need is at the highest level of needs would neither be readily accepted nor regarded positively in the Asian culture. Instead, socially directed needs seem to be more apposite in such cultural context. Schtte and Ciarlante thus put forth an Asian equivalent model, one that eliminates the personally directed self- actualisation need and emphasizes the intricacies and importance of socially directed needs, namely, affiliation, admiration and status.Based on the research conducted by (Athena H. N. Mak, Kevin K. F. Wong and Richard C. Y. Chang) Their study identified the motivating factors for Hong Kong spa-goers seeking spa experience when they travel. Their perceptions of spa, as well as their socio-demographic characteristics, were analysed. In addition, an instrument to measure motivation in the spa tourism domain was developed. Factor analysis results show that relaxation and relief, escape, self-reward and indulgence, and health and beauty are important underlying motivating factors for spa-goers, as shown i n the study. The result contrasts interestingly with general European spa-goers perception that spa experience is largely for curative or therapeutic purposes (Miller, 1996 Douglas, 2001), and American spa-goers perception that spa experience is a means of self-reward (Kaspar, 1990 ISPA, 2006). For the Hong Kong context, it is actually an integration of self-reward and health, together with relaxation and escape motivations. This distinctive combination of motivating factors reflects the unique underlying needs of Hong Kong spa-goers.The demand for spa is anticipated to grow continuously (ISPA, 2006), and the opportunities associated with spa are many and varied. However, despite the bright outlook for the Asian spa market, it is autocratic for the spa industry to exploit the potential for this niche market segment outlook for the Asian spa market, it is imperative for the spa industry to maximise the potential for this niche market segment.Current Situation of Mandala Spa here(pr edicate) you do a write up discussing the current situation of Mandala Spa as a destination spa in the Asia Pacific region.What is the cardinal to Mandalas Success?You have to construe, that when you analyze wellness and a commitment to wellness and the wellbeing of other people, you realize very quickly that taking care of other people or being a good care taker for people, a very essential Christian quality, this is not something you do as a job like flipping hamburgers it is something that has to be developed inside of a person as part of their personality, inside of their kindling, so Karen Reina and I realized very quickly that if you want to be sincere in the wellness industry by taking care of other people one way or the other. It could be in the spa industry, the hotel industry or that might simply be in the nursing or physical therapy industry, the most important quality is the love and compassion and ability to have positive relationships with the guests. We decided tha t this is one of the most essential qualities a place can have, this is what we have to focus our service on, the rest is very expert instruction, skill training, attitude refinement, the way your presenting yourself with etiquette training, but what makes us very different from all other aspects of the hospitality industry is that when your working really constraining with people, when your touching them literary with your hands and fingers, when your all over their skin YOU careen FAKE IT If your not real, people will realize it the latest at that point, when somebodys hands are all over them, thats when they realize if that service is real or fake, they are just pretending to give me a amiable and compassionate service and just see it as a job. This is what really is the very essence of mandala spa, and this is what makes us different from many other places to acquire out with our outlook was not based on a well organized spread sheet full of figures, our first challenge w as and still is always, how can you install a culture and a commitment to the essence of hospitality in our staff, a corporate culture as it is called this is the equivalent challenge others in the same field are experiencing now in hospitality, where they say that cutting edge is where the guest is loved or feels loved, what better hospitality can you give other than consecutive love and true care? No matter on which level, and this is what our people and guests come back for. So when people ask what was their best holiday experience, it is often the very small relationships they had with their host, it is all about love, care and respect, the rest is really just dressing up. You very quickly realize that when you think that way, well its different that hamburger flipping in a way that you have to teach that way of thinking, you have to communicate that, you have to install that as a part of corporate culture.. that we want to do things with care, that we want to do things to mai ntain or better the environment, that we are caring for our employees as people and not just by looking at the annual growth rate of the company, caring by making an effort to communicate with them, by trying to provide personal growth opportunities for them, no matter if its through Yoga or personal talks or through participation in our social righteousness programs like planting trees, improving the environment, and they are soaring of that, they should feel proud of being gentle, of being caring, of being compassionate. These are al the values we are trying to install within our corporate culture, not just the training to start out with and technical perfection, quality of touch, I am doing that myself. alone what really brings everything through and what brings everything together is really when your heart is open and your heart is in it, and this is a big part of Mandalas secret, were trying really to maintain that corporate culture that is true to itself, that walks the tal k. Wellness and wellbeing is not a five to nine job for Mandala Spa, it is a way of lie for Mandala Spa. Conclusively, a lot of people working with us or working with me are not there just for the job or the rewards or the growth opportunities on a proffesional career level, they are simply there because they love the way of life that they can live during eight hours of their prime time.CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGYResearch Paradigm and DesignThe Research Paradigm used in this dissertation is that of intepretivism in which is a comprehension of the differences between humanity as social actors. The social actors in this case refer to interview respondents. Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2007) presented an argument that the business world is too intricate to be at the disposition of theories and definite laws in which rich insights may be lost in the process.In line with this paradigm, the author maintains an empathetic stance and attempting to understand the social world from the point of view from the research subjects. As each situation is unique and stands alone, all these are a function of a specified set of individuals and circumstances brought together at a particular time.The epistemology of this paradigm is on subjective meanings and social phenomena with a focus into an in depth study on the details of destination spas in the Asia Pacific, the downplay reality and motivating actions. It will have a subjective axiology due to the research being value bound and the author being indwelling from the research.An inductive approach is used here in which the author theorizes that the wellness industry is a sub category of the health industry health tourism and from recent trends it is predicted that the health industry is beginning to adapt aspects of the wellness industry as a more informed clientele demand for an integration of wellness and nutrition into healthcare. This proposed theory is to be backed up with collected interview data for testing of validity .Qualitative Study entropy Collection DevelopmentOpen ended questions are structured or at least semi structured. It is important that the author guides the interview and run it back on topic should digression occur. Nonetheless, for the purpose of the B.A (Hons) dissertation, structured interviews should be used.If you use interviews but did not manage to meet the person face to face, attach a copy of email correspondence in appendix. Or save MSN conversations into rich text format.Samplingselective information CollectionData AnalysisEthicsCHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS AND RESULTSIntroductionProfile of ParticipantsHow many of themNumber of contacts (overall sampling frame)How many returns? (% of responses) DO NOTE THAT FOR ONLINE SURVEYS, THE ACTUAL measuring stick IS NOT EASILY DERIVED AND IS MAINLY AN ESTIMATE.Give evidence of screening (How many were null? Even if person answers all strongly agree, it is null) fit steps supersede absolute numbers.Report the final, n = 19 (%)Who are th e participants? (Use your background questions to assist you.) For qualitative interviews, youve been in contact with the person. Describe their cogency to prove that they are the appropriate person to individual on the subject. soil of ParticipantsAnalysis of qualitative dataReiterate that an inductive approach was used and that it is an exploratory paperYou have a choice here of analyzing your data using a condensation, grouping or ordering process.