The future of spa

The World Spa & Wellness Convention is just around the corner, and this year’s event promises to tackle the issues facing the UK spa market in 2018 and beyond. With a theme of change and disruption, the two-day conference will cover topics including tech disruptors in spa; making wellness the key to repeat business; building a spa community; and the rebirth of fitness in spa.

Speaker spotlight: Jessica Shea The director of global spa at Hilton Hotels & Resorts is joining the Solving the Staffing Crisis panel on Monday, February 26.

“We’re all facing a staffing crisis and can benefit from different organisations’ perspectives on what to do about it. I would like to share some of the tactics we’re implementing at Hilton to remain a top employer of spa and fitness professionals,” says Shea.

“The industry can’t thrive without providing continuous growth and development opportunities for spa and fitness professionals. We need to attract and retain caring, talented professionals into service provider and management positions.”

Speaker spotlight: Hans-Peter Veit The director of spa at Victoria-Jungfrau in Switzerland is speaking during the Breakfast Club session on Exchange best practices that worked wonders for you this past year, on Monday, February 26.

“I want to share my experience with colleagues on stage and in the audience because everyone is seeking new ways to exceed guests’ expectations and achieve happy clients and happy figures,” says Veit. “Our industry is still small, a niche business for most hoteliers, but it’s a close-knit family and together we are strong. If we learn from each other and share our experiences, wins and losses we can make our spa world a bit better every year.”

Speaker spotlight: Neil Jacobs The Six Senses chief executive is delivering a keynote address on the topic of Make Wellness the Key to Repeat Business, on Sunday, February 25.

“I’ll centre on wellness and sustainability, wellness and hospitality and how everything is converging,” Jacobs says. “The importance of wellness in hospitality is finally being acknowledged globally. That said, hospitality investors often remain fixated on revenue per square foot, rather than looking at other business metrics. Repeat business is an important element that reduces cost of sales and the right wellness product can make a meaningful contribution to this.”

Other speakers include: Richard Macklin of Holmes Place Health Clubs; Colin Farndon of The Gleneagles Hotel; Johannes Mikenda of Schloss Elmau; Andrew Gibson of Accor Hotels; Catherine Strange-Warren of Carillon Miami Wellness Resort; Ghislain Waeyaert of Deep Nature; Kay Pennington of Center Parcs and Robin Mauras-Cartier of The Set Hotels. PB The