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HOTEL Business Review
Designing Wellness W
ellness business in India is growing impressively. The growth of India’s spa industry can be attributed to the significant increase in disposable incomes in select but sizeable pockets of urban India during the last decade, tension filled hectic lifestyles of many sections of people of post-modern urban India, and also due to the growing health and wellness consciousness in niches of Indian society. Now, with the impressive growth and maturation of the wellness business in the country, the demand for innovative spa designs can also be expected to emerge as a trend, whose effects can of course, influence India’s evolving hospitality industry, as nowadays a lot many hotels and resorts in the country house spas in them. With changing times it is necessary to have a feel of the trends pervading through spa designing in India’s spa industry; to know the elements which should be incorporated while designing a spa; to get an idea of the futuristic spa design trends in the context of India’s spa industry; the relevance of eco-friendly spas among other issues and to know the appropriate lighting
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May-June ’22
requirements for spa.
Happening Trends Various happening trends are pervading through India’s wellness industry. In a rapidly growing wellness industry, India has witnessed many spa designs that are structurally beautiful, with fusing of some amazing design principles of east and the west. Spa facilities close to nature is another trend pervading through India’s wellness industry. Bringing the ‘outdoors in’ to keep guests close to nature is a spa design trend in the country. Similarly, wellness meets fitness is also a spa design trend. There is
a lot of focus on creative options to stay fit within spa resorts such as meditative walking pathways, Pilate studios, meditative zones etc. A g e n e ra l t re n d i n s p a d es i g n i s minimalism. Clean neat lines with eye pleasing colour scheme are generally preferred by both spa owners and clients. Spas in India are moving toward thematic interiors, where spa is designed around a particular theme, and elements related to the theme are used in the interiors. For instance, in a spa that specialises in marine treatments and follows a water theme, a water body should be installed within the spa and aqua colours like blue and green should be predominantly used.
Spa Design Elements Preferably all hotels that plan to have a spa facility should in great detail integrate wellness with their other operations. This can enable guests to truly experience and feel the hospitality of the hotel as regards to their overall well-being. This wellness integration should extend outside a spa and should be a part of guestrooms, public
