Are Spas a Necessary Evil? Impressions of the Monaco Spa Event
- Published: Tuesday, January 22nd 2008
- in Living Well
Are Spas a Necessary Evil? Impressions of the
Monaco Spa Event
By Susie Ellis
Just returned from the Monaco Spa Event. With such a
jam-packed schedule of symposium sessions, meetings and exhibits to see, there was little time for plugging in and writing on my blog.The hotel’s charge of 20 euros ($30.00) for connecting to the Internet each day didn’t help either.
But I am back and happily thinking through some of the highlights. I will elaborate more in the next few posts, but here are a few things that stood out:
- The Director of the Lausanne Hotel School in Switzerland ended his remarks with “Spas are a necessary evil.” YIKES
- Jacques-Olivier Chauvin, CEO of Relais & Chateaux, has a keen understanding of the value of connection in hospitality. I was extremely impressed with his insights.
- The Monaco Spa Event really shone in the arena of spa architecture and design. My feeling is that this could be the foundation of its future.
- The Group Director of the Tschuggen Grand Bergoase in Switzerland (famous for its sail-like features which we featured on the cover of one of our Luxury SpaFinder Magazines) told the story of how that came to be and showed the photo which inspired it all.
- A 600 calorie meal prepared by a star spa chef, in an elegant setting such as the L’Hermitage Hotel, can be quite impressive.
- Rasmus Gaupp-Berghausen, Director of the European Research Center Hado Life Europe, in Liechtenstein gave a talk on water (with mixed reviews) yet struck a chord with me, when he suggested that the quality of a spa should be judged by the quality of its water. He also convinced me to drink local water wherever I am.
- Our magazine editor, Gary Walther, gave a presentation on spa architecture around the world – it was a visual feast of “wow’s” and made me proud to be part of the international spa industry.
- Energy medicine was a hot topic.
- The medical side of spas in Europe is beginning to soften its strict doctor-knows-best approach. Who would have thought that a European doctor would talk about “transformation” and refer to people suffering from heart disease as “broken hearted?”
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