Good Vibrations: Sound Healing Makes Waves in the Wellness Industry

   If you have been noticing more spas offering treatments that incorporate Tibetan singing bowls, tuning forks, or gongs, you aren’t alone. Sound therapies are starting to make waves in the spa industry.

In the ultra-competitive world of luxury wellness travel, companies need to do more than just offer gorgeous views, great-tasting food, and aromatic gardens. They need to think about sound too.

Increasingly, properties including Hyatt’s Miraval Arizona are employing sound therapy to pull in wellness-oriented customers. The idea is that people’s ears offer a path to relaxation and healing every bit as powerful as eyeballs, nostrils, and fingertips. And companies are citing ancient wisdom known to groups as disparate as Australia’s aborigines (think didgeridoos), Tibetan monks (think singing bowls), and Native Americans (flutes, drums, and rains sticks) as part of healing practices.

“Sound can signal the body to release its own tension and negativity, dropping the brainwave into a meditative state quickly and effectively,” said Pamela Lancaster, a widely regarded guru in the field and “master healer” at Miraval Arizona.

What Miraval Arizona and others are realizing is that sound is a powerful tool in reducing clients’ stress levels, improving their moods, and alleviating pain. And given the hectic, anxiety-ridden world of 2020, more and more travelers are seeking out such restorative treatments.

WHAT’S IN A SOUND?

Proponents of sound therapy call it “vibrational medicine,” arguing that certain systems in our bodies vibrate at different frequencies. If these frequencies get disrupted by ailments like emotional distress or illness, our well-being could be affected.

While efforts to heal through sound therapy is as old as ancient Egypt, scientists have only recently begun to explore its efficacy. The wellness community, however, has been providing sound therapies for more than a decade, with some treatments growing more and more into standard offers.

The offerings include massages that are synchronized to music, listening to the peaceful sounds of “deep nature” and taking in the beauty of Tibetan singing bowl sessions. Tuning forks of varying pitches are thought by some to be a way to “unblock” people’s “stagnant energy,” And so-called “sound baths” — an ancient form of deep meditation — create relaxing, repetitive sounds using musical bowls, cymbals, and gongs.

“An immersion in sound frequency cleanses the soul,” said Robert Lee, a leader at  Eaton DC, a hotel and wellness center in Washington, D.C. “It allows for a recalibration to a deep stillness that we can all access within ourselves.”

In fact, sound can be used to create a sense of stillness that people crave, he added. “While trying to quiet the mind in a quiet room is nearly impossible, sound actually makes meditating easier.”

WHERE SOUND AND TRAVEL OVERLAP

At Miraval Arizona, Lancaster has seen firsthand how much sound can help visitors leave behind their stresses and negativity and settle into a meditative state. The resort offers Vasudhara, a water treatment combining Thai massages with pulsating sounds emanating from underwater speakers. “The body brings itself back into a place of homeostasis,” Lancaster said, about the treatment. “And things have a propensity to begin to heal.”

Vasudhara at Miraval Arizona

Michelle Pirret, a “sonic alchemist” at the Four Seasons New York Downtown, suggested this type of therapy is powerful because the human body is comprised mostly of water. “When frequency is played on the body, cellular water is vibrating,” she said. “This escalates hormonal release and relaxation.”

The Lodge at Woodloch in northeastern Pennsylvania offers a vibrational treatment that uses the sound waves of singing bowls to create a relaxed, meditative state. Its “Gong with the Wind” selection combines yoga and meditation with holistic sound immersion. The acoustics come courtesy of conch shells, bronze gongs, and singing bowls.

Sound Healing Instruments
at The Lodge at Woodloch

Primordial sound meditation is also on the menu at the Chopra Center for Well-Being in California. Guests receive personal mantras, specific sounds or vibrations that help them achieve quieter, more peaceful states of mind.

In Wisconsin, Kohler Waters Spa at The American Club has wet treatment rooms featuring VibraAcoustic bath technology. There, a big bathtub is tricked out with transducers that send vibrations through the water and aimed at opening up lymphatic pathways, said Nikki Miller, director of Kohler Waters Spas.

For companies looking to add sound therapy to their offerings, here is one piece of counterintuitive advice. Rather than just focusing on the noise, resort operators also need to focus on designing spaces for, well, blissful silence. “Creating a soundproof space significantly enhances the effectiveness of the experience,” Lee, of Eaton in Washington, D.C., explained.

“Silence,” he added, “must be given the honor it deserves.”

Wellness Travel Expert Makes the Rounds to Sun Valley/Talks Forest Bathing and Kneipping

My recent presentation at the Idaho Tourism Conference was covered by Eye on Sun Valley (see link below story). While the reporter got my name and title wrong, and altered the last quote, I leave the story largely unedited for your reading pleasure.

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Imagine having your doctor write a prescription for you to take a walk in the woods! That could be the future of tourism in Sun Valley.

Sun Valley and the Gem State are uniquely positioned to capitalize on wellness tourism, which is “huge” worldwide and the fastest growing sector of the tourism industry, according to a wellness travel reporter for Skift.

Photo by Laura Powell

"What you have here is a must for the wellness traveler,” Laurel Powell told those attending the annual Idaho Conference on Recreation and Tourism held this past week at Sun Valley Resort. “You have quiet and opportunity for interaction with nature in a day when most Americans live in urban areas without much access to nature. What you have is unparalleled, particularly in the Lower 48.”

Outdoor recreation is a $427.2 billion business, and it’s growing more than twice as fast as the overall economy, increasing 16 percent versus the 7.5 percent that the overall economy grew between 2012 and 2017. Nature-based recreation is growing even faster—up to 44 percent for some states. Idaho is one of the states experiencing some of the largest growth in nature-based recreation.

Even spas that have traditionally incorporated everything inside are now offering outdoor activities and bringing in elements from the outdoors inside with lobby fountains and natural colors in their design.

“We think of wellness travel as spas and massages, but it’s becoming more than that,” Powell said.  “Everyone’s disconnected so they’re looking to boost their psychological well-being.”

How cool would yoga or meditation, she asked, under the stars in Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve be? Sun Valley and other Idaho towns could easily become centers for forest bathing, a practice developed in Japan that involves meditative guided walks through the woods engaging all the senses from sight to smell. 

Forest bathing is known as “shinrin-yoku,” which means “taking in the forest.”
Photo by Karen Bossick

Trees and plants emit aromas called phytoncides designed to protect them from harmful insects, animals and microbes. Those and other smells are believed to help lower blood pressure, while boosting the immune system, improving sleep, lowering anxiety and reducing pain in forest bathers. It can be done in winter, as well as summer, spring and fall, Powell said. Add-ons like fly-fishing outings could offer forest bathers reason to stay longer.

Photo by Laura Powell

Some countries are also attracting people with kneipping, which involves walking along water trails or through puddles to stimulate blood flow and strengthen the immune system. “As far as I know, no one is offering this yet in the United States—it’s very unique,” said Powell.

Some places, such as Newfoundland and Finland, are selling isolation.

“Boise is supposed to be the most isolated urban area in the United States. That’s not a bad thing—being isolated and in the middle of nowhere is increasingly becoming a big draw,” Powell said. “People in Los Angeles and urban centers where they’re so rushed are craving that.”

Some tourism campaigns are even selling the sounds of silence. A 400-year-old monastery in Quebec City, for instance, hosts a week-long silence retreat where attendees join one another in a silent breakfast and happy hour is held in the chapel.

Honing in on Hot Springs

visitidaho.com

Hot springs were once a big draw for the Wood River Valley when Guyer Hot Springs and a few hot springs near Hailey were going full bore. Traveling to hot springs for wellness is making a comeback.

The inaugural hot springs conference was held last year and a hot springs association was organized last  month, Powell said.

Hot springs are being augmented with restaurants and opportunities for artists to show and sell their art to elevate the experience. Tiny homes and Airstream trailers are offering alternative accommodations in places with no hotels. The experience can be enhanced with such things as bike tours to the hot springs, Powell said.

Colorado has established a 720-mile Historic Hot Springs Loop that takes geothermal bathers through Ouray, Glenwood Springs, Steamboat Springs, Pagosa Springs, Buena Vista and Salida.

“The No. 1 search on the Colorado tourist website in recent years has been hot springs,” Powell said. “People won’t go in the middle of nowhere for one hot spring, but put them together and, all of a sudden, towns that never got visitors are seeing tourism.”

Even urban areas are trying to position themselves as wellness destinations, according to Powell. Beverly Hills, California, for instance, recently kicked off a new “City of Wellth” initiative to showcase its wellness options. (LP⁠—This was not part of the talk, but taken from an article I wrote for Skift two years ago).

The campaign kicked off with meditation and other events led by wellness guru Deepak Chopra. It includes weekly public Walks with the Mayor and more restaurant choices for vegans, vegetarians, paleo dieters and locavores.

“It helps to tie local foods into community wellness programs,” Powell said. “It doesn’t feel very authentic when you go on a wellness vacation and all you see are Burger Kings.” 

Story by KAREN BOSSICK

In Austin, Wellness is Fast Becoming the New Weird

For many years, the tourism slogan of the capital of Texas has been “Keep Austin Weird.”But given recent developments, that slogan could easily be “Keep Austin Well,” and no one would bat an eye.

One of the city’s main luxury spa resorts is undergoing a $150 million facelift, while another continues to get regular shots of Botox. Furthermore, the first Miraval spa resort to open outside of the Tucson, Arizona, flagship comes to Austin at the end of this year.

And one more thing – this year, South by Southwest added a Wellness Expo to its agenda for the first time. Brittani Mathis, Senior Exhibitions Manager said that as SXSW transforms along with society, the Wellness Expo is a response to the public’s growing attention to health.

Lake Austin Spa Resort
Courtesy rviplanning.com

So, what’s in the water in Austin? According to Hyatt’s Marc Ellin, global head of Miraval Group and Exhale Enterprises, “Austin is becoming a mecca for everything. Music, high tech, hospitality. Wellness is just another deliverable.”

Janis Clapoff, managing director of Lake Austin Spa Resort, shares that view.

“More types of people are seeking out Austin because it’s Austin. It’s grown into a mega-city known for arts, music and food. So it follows that in a city that is so very current… it makes perfect sense for wellness to follow along with everything else that’s happening,” she said

One more advantage, given the massive growth in spa resort culture, is the fact that, according to Ellin, “Austin is one of the fittest cities in the country, and very health-conscious,”

That’s a large part of why human resource departments won’t have to be on pins and needles as they seek out the holistic specialists, ranging from acupuncturists to yogis to reiki masters, needed to staff their facilities. They are already in abundance in the area.

THE PLAYERS

Miraval began life in 1995 as a facility dedicated to helping guests live life in balance. Around the beginning of 2017, when Hyatt was purchasing Miraval’s intellectual and physical assets, it was also purchasing Travassa, a mindfulness resort located 40 minutes outside of Austin in an area called Hill Country.

This property, after a significant renovation, will have a soft opening in November, followed by a full-on opening in December. The existing guest room inventory is being renovated and 50 more rooms are getting added, bringing the total to 117. Other new facilities include a 21,000 square foot spa and Body Mindfulness Center. There will also be an expansive farm, complete with chicken coops, beehives and event spaces, as well as a ranch for equine programming.

Ellin distinguishes Miraval from its local competition in several areas. “Most notably,” he said, “we are an inclusive pricing structure. Also, the experiential nature of what we offer is a totally different deliverable from start to finish. There will be 100 well-being programming elements.”

Food and beverage will also be a big part of the menu, with a Life in Balance culinary program developed in partnership with Williams-Sonoma.

Lake Austin Spa Resort Indoor Pool
Courtesy: tripadvisor.com

Lake Austin Spa Resort offers a counterpoint. The rustic luxury property, located on the shores of Lake Austin, dates back to the 1940s.  During its first 50 years, the property  welcomed everyone from nudists to cowboys to extreme weight loss devotees. However, in 1997, best friends Michael McAdams (who was once president of Trammell Crow Design Centers) and William Rucks purchased the property and decided to transform it into an all-inclusive luxury destination spa. They added and updated guest cabins, and by 2004, had built a 25,000 square-foot LakeHouse Spa.

“We are in the process of putting a big property plan together for a wider renovation,” said Clapoff. “Architects are drawing up plans, still under wraps. that will encompass significant changes to our rooms, public spaces and spa.”

So, for the next few years, the competition may have newer, shinier facilities, but Clapoff said Lake Austin Spa Resort plans to “capitalize on other people marketing the area,” while at the same time promoting the property’s unique selling proposition – its waterside location.

Courtesy: FathomAway.com

“Not only can guests take a water taxi to get here,” she said, “but fifty percent of what you can do is on the water: We have hammocks over the water… yoga and meditation on the shore.”

While Lake Austin promotes the water, the Omni Barton Creek Spa and Resort focuses on its views. The current $150-million transformation will add spaces designed to take full advantage of the panoramic Texas Hill Country landscape. The updated 493-room resort will reopen on May 1, 2019.

The property opened in 1986 as a golf club. It added a hotel in 1987, and the spa component was added in the early 1990s. The renovation/transformation beefs up the wellness component, adding a 13,000 square feet spa to the mix.

Omni Barton Creek Spa and Resort
Courtesy cvent.com

Still, the property will promote itself as an overall resort rather than a wellness destination per se. According to Dan Surette, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Omni, “This is a group and leisure destination, with four golf courses, an events pavilion, tennis and a spa. So, we are marketing it more as an overall resort. Wellness is a big part of the entire resort, but we won’t be selling just wellness.”

Even though the renovation was in the cards before Miraval came on the scene, Surette is not worried.

“The other resorts [Miraval and Lake Austin] are running with one real strength. For us, we have a lot of strengths.”

He also gives a nod to the theory of critical mass. “The more quality there is in this market, it heightens the awareness and draws attention to all of us.”

Clapoff agrees. “We love that we have competition from a wellness standpoint – it’s so healthy. It will bring more people to the area by building awareness of Austin as a wellness destination.”

This article originally appeared in Skift, for which I am the luxury correspondent.

Pass the Avocado Toast: Updating the Spa Experience for a New Generation

What do millennials want out of a luxury wellness experience? Apparently, avocado toast. That’s just one of the findings lifestyle publication Well+Good discovered after surveying 4,600 of its readers.

californiaavocado.com

Unlike days of yore, when the only way to discover wellness concepts was by going to iconic high-end destination spas like Canyon Ranch and Miraval, today, wellness is accessible nearly everywhere.

You can take a high-intensity interval training class or sip on a matcha latte anywhere from Boise, Idaho to Baltimore, Maryland. There’s the entire urban landscape extending to second-tier and tertiary cities supporting what were once fringe wellness practices and pabulums confined to the likes of Los Angeles or New York.

Alexia Brue and Melisse Gelula co-founded Well+Good in 2010. They presented the findings of the company’s Wellness Travel Survey at the Global Wellness Summit in October.

The ubiquity of wellness is a big part of the reason, says Brue, that millennials aren’t impressed with the iconic spa brands, many of which have traditionally appealed to clientele getting the wellness light switched on for the first time.

But another reason, she says, is simply that this generation doesn’t know these brands. “Starting in the late 1990s through the early aughts,” says Brue, “the iconic spa has not been a part of the cultural currency.”  In pre-Internet days, seekers would discover these retreats thanks to fawning articles and splashy advertising in glossy travel magazines.  But this generation gets its information online, and as Brue notes, “These brands haven’t been part of the social media conversation.”  That’s part of the reason the millennial wellness getaway mindset has traveled elsewhere.

In a game of “would you rather,” the Well+Good survey discovered that a slim majority of the respondents would opt to go to an iconic spa (55 percent) over a guru-led retreat (40 percent). However, Gelula calls the results “shocking,” given that they were expecting an 80/20 differential in favor of the old-school spa.

According to the Well+Good co-founders, the spa attendees in the audience at The Global Wellness Summit were surprised, too. “The spas don’t even realize that their biggest competition isn’t other spas,” says Brue. “Fitness and lifestyle instructors leading retreats are the competition,” says Brue. Indeed, it’s increasingly common for self-branded wellness gurus with large social media followings to organize their own wellness retreats to exotic destinations around the world.

Cambodia is one of the exotic destinations popular for guru-led wellness retreats.

For spa resort executives who might be comforting themselves by thinking it’s all about the price tag, they are wrong, according to Gelula. “They are convincing themselves that if they are not attracting millennials, it’s because millennials aren’t taking luxury trips.” But that’s not true. Millennials do have disposable income (although not necessarily as much free time. According to to the survey, younger wellness seekers are more likely to take a three-day getaway rather than the traditional one-week spa stay). When it comes to retreats versus spas, she says, “it’s important to point out that we aren’t seeing much of a price point difference. Retreat leaders often charge between $700 and $1000 a day.

Brue also believes that some of the iconic spas, instead of trying to appeal to millennials today, are just waiting until they start getting aches and pains. The problem with that approach, says Brue, is that “millennials don’t have a ‘fix me now’ mentality when they go to a spa.” Because they are already incorporating wellness in their everyday life, when they go on a wellness getaway, they want an elevated experience that builds on their daily practices, but doesn’t replicate them.

Gelula says, “Spas are simply are out of the loop in terms of what travelers expect from a wellness retreat.” So, what do today’s wellness warriors want? The number one priority, according to the survey, is food. Ninety-nine percent of the respondents said the quality of the food was a key factor in their decision-making process.

Ninety-seven percent of the survey respondents wanted cultural offerings to be part of the package. That doesn’t necessarily mean experiencing a Lomi Lomi massage in Hawaii, but rather going to a destination where the surroundings themselves provide a broadening experience. That’s part of the reason guru-led retreats are starting to get a leg up. They can roam from place to place from year to year, plunking down in up-and-coming destinations in order to incorporate a greater cultural component into the programming mix.

The Well+Good survey also found the nature experiences (96 percent) and high quality fitness offerings (94 percent) were important, with spa services (93 percent) rounding out the top five.

So, how can the iconic spa bring offerings up to date? Gelula recommends starting with the menu. “Focus on food,” she says. “Provide cool wellness food offerings. After all, consumers are used to eating avocado toast, avocado smoothies and cauliflower rice at home…or seeing them on Instagram.” In addition to menu updates, Brue says spas need to hire higher-quality fitness instructors, and to add more personalization to the spa programming.

All in all, the co-founders of Well+Good suggest spas need to change now or risk becoming dinosaurs. As Gelula notes, “The value proposition has to keep pace with this sophisticated group of travelers. One thing we confirmed with the survey results: Spa experiences for millennials should focus on deepening already-existing wellness practices.”

This story originally appeared in the Skift New Luxury Newsletter.

Natural Spa Treatments With Good Vibrations

Here’s the rub: In these days of digital overload and high-tech impedimenta, spas are going back to nature in order to stand out from the crowd. Water, wood, sound waves, sand and even fish eggs and poultry are being incorporated into spa treatments around the globe. Here are a half-dozen spa treatments that provide a natural high:

Fowl Play in Santa Fe

A Silkie Chicken at Sunrise Springs Resort

Why did the chicken cross the road? Answer: To soothe a soul at Sunrise Springs Resort in New Mexico. The Santa Fe facility has two dozen purring Silkie chickens. Hold one and feel the sound vibrations throughout its body and yours. Aside from the good vibrations, hanging with the birds also allows opportunity to slow down and reflect upon the human pecking order and other eternal chicken and egg questions.

Mr. Sandman Hits the Big Apple  

How about a massage in the sand? A bit messy, right? Not at Spa Nalai at the Park Hyatt New York. Here, the “sand” is actually pebbles of quartz, placed on a special table, covered with sheets and heated from below. Once one hops on said table, the masseuse gently pelts the subject with heated poultices filled with warm quartz sand. It’s all designed to alleviate aches and pains and release muscular tension. The Spa at the Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida offers a similar treatment. 

Something's Fishy in Rome

What’s more natural than being schmeared with caviar? Okay, maybe not so natural (unless you are Vladimir Putin or an incarnation of a Russian czarina). Still, even members of the proletariat (if they can afford it) can enjoy the Caviar Body Treatment at the Spa at the Rome Cavalieri, Waldorf Astoria in the Eternal City. This nourishing and energizing total body massage is said to firm skin and leave clients “shimmering with renewed vitality, improved elasticity and an overall sense of well-being.” High “marx”, indeed.

Bamboo Botox North of the Border

Everything’s shipshape at Bota Bota Spa-Sur-L’Eau, a floating spa located in Montreal’s Old Port. Although listed as a facial, Bota Bota’s Kobido treatment is more of a massage for the face, as it dispenses with lotions and potions and focuses on the rub. The key to the treatment is the use of bamboo sticks to pinch and roll the skin, pushing out stress and rolling out wrinkles. It’s kind of like Botox without the needles.

Texas Tapping 

Take a beating at the Spa at Lake Austin Spa Resort in Austin, Texas. For a unique way to relax and invigorate the body, Manaka Tapping is an ancient Japanese treatment that has therapists rapping acupressure points with a wooden hammer and peg. If this sounds too painful, try a cuplift. Cupping is a time-honored Asian tradition (and more recently, a ritual embraced by one Michael Phelps) where heated vessels with mild suction are applied to the skin to stimulate circulation. Warning: post-treatment, it may look like a horse has been giving you hickeys.



Good Vibrations in Stowe, Vermont

The hills are alive with the sound of tuning forks in Stowe, Vermont,  best known as the American home of the Von Trapps.  The Spa at Stoweflake Mountain Resort uses sound therapy in several of its treatments. For a full body tune-up, the utensil of choice is a tuning fork. Tapping a tuning fork is said to alter the body’s biochemistry, bringing everything into harmonic balance. Warning: Do not try this at home with a kitchen fork.

The original version of this story appears here.https://www.orbitz.com/blog/2016/08/6-spa-treatments-that-offer-good-vibrations-and-natural-highs/