A number of hotels across the Middle East have opened specified retreats and resorts with wellness very much at the top of the agenda.
One of these is R Hotels which has opened a resort on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, the first four-star property in the area.
The property prides itself on not just offering spa and beauty treatments, but an entire range of wellbeing and lifestyle packages – from proper diet and nutrition to fitness classes and health treatments.
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Samir Arora, general manager, of the property comments: “It’s basically a one stop shop for anything you can think of for wellness.
“That was the whole idea of coming up with this resort. What we have done is taken everything and incorporated it all under one roof. One of the challenges is thinking outside of the box to stand out from the rest of the market.
“We’re not serving alcohol or shisha, it’s a smoke free hotel.
“No hotels have done retreats, they vary from three, five to 14, 21 days. That is the route we have taken, we are sticking with that and we are going to develop it.”
He described the concept of the resort as being organic and pointed out there are no 90 degree angles on walls or edges, everything is curved.
“That’s aimed at keeping feng shui in mind,” he says.
“If we have 90 degree angles it’s bad feng shui.”
Arora said that every member of staff is made clear of the goal when they are hired.
“Everything is geared up towards wellness,” he says.
“Even when we recruit staff we make sure they appreciate that wellness is in our DNA.
“It’s about getting the right profile in terms of look and feel.”
Another new resort is the Alma Retreat which opened in Ras Al Khaimah at the start of the year with a focus on stressful issues financial planning, family time, healthier living, offering a number of workshops in the process as well as hiking, meditation and yoga.
“The wellness industry is continuously evolving, if you want to keep your customers, you need innovate with new procedures and products, it can be quite challenging to keep up,” says founder Sarah Arnold.
“The world is getting more and more fast paced and stress is almost a regular state of being. Wellness is here to stay, as people need something to balance out an increasingly overloaded day to day life.”
