Luxury spa operator Six Senses expands in the Middle East as its latest offering opens at Hotel Missoni in Kuwait
AS award-winning group Six Senses prepared to open its latest Middle Eastern facility at the recently-launched Hotel Missoni Kuwait, Luxury by TTN spoke to the company’s managing director Samir Patel.
How will this Six Senses spa differ from others in the region?
Six Senses Spa is a unique market leader offering a global deep-rooted integrated experience of wellness and wellbeing, offering tools and potential for joy, vibrancy and life-enhancing experiences.
Our signature treatments are distinctive and our calendar of global visiting master practitioners has no precedence. Our efficacious, handcrafted, natural products are hand-picked while our globally trained and sourced team of senior therapists and hosts are significantly special.
So the facility will be very different from other spas here in the Middle East.
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How was the Missoni chosen as the location for the facility?
The correct perspective is actually how Six Senses was chosen to create a spa in Missoni Kuwait. We understand that after an extensive global search to identify the most iconic wellness and spa brand the owners and promoters of the project zeroed down and invited Six Senses as the global leader to offer its services to Kuwait.
Where will the staff come from, are you also recruiting local staff?
We hand-pick our team of hosts, as we call our staff team members, based on their talent, experience and expertise from around the world, many actually from our existing operations. We also augment the team with local hosts aligned with our ‘slow life’ philosophy.
Are there any treatments that will be available exclusively at the Missoni spa?
Each of our locations worldwide has a specially crafted group of treatments that we consider the essence of Six Senses, our Six Senses ‘slow life’ treatments. These treatments create a learning, inspiring, fun experience through sustainable, local, organic and wholesome means.
By using ingredients, plants and herbs that are indigenous to the local area, we treasure local tradition as the very essence of Six Senses to offer a truly natural and authentic experience such as the traditional hamam journey, the Arabian herbal glow and dates wrap and the Gulf spices ritual.
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What has been the development schedule in the region over the last year or so and what others are due to open in the next 24 months?
We operate 30 iconic spas worldwide in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. We have a further pipeline at various locations of 31-plus projects, some of which are in the Middle East.
The Middle East stands out as our new preferred geography backed by our success in taking deep roots in European and Asian locations. Our spas in Zighy Bay Oman, Ma’in Springs Jordan, Etihad First Class Lounge Abu Dhabi and Doha Qatar are patronised substantially by affluent and privileged families. Given the loyalty, love and favour that we have been offered in these locations we are set to expand our presence, after Kuwait, in Muscat and a few select locations within the Middle East in the near future.
What is the particular Six Senses ethos that makes the brand such a favourite and an award winner?
Our guiding principle of a sustainable, luxurious platform of integrative vital health, well-being and wellness is expressed through our design, service philosophy, products and services.
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Above all our direct integration with the discerning affluent local residents and visitors’ expectations and needs, enables us to create a deep emotional and loyal bond in each location. Awards are just one expression of this successful integration with the local society.
How would you define luxury in terms of the spa sector?
We perform in the arena of ‘intelligent luxury as brand’. We leave the other spa brands to cater to the aspiring masstige segment. Our interpretation of luxury resonates to the expectations of the discerning and privileged individuals who know intimately the subtle and exceptional arts and crafts of personal well-being, and integrative vitality.
Hence our services are expressed through some of world’s most qualified and trained ‘hosts’ (staff members), offering innovative and incisive modalities of physical, emotional, energetic experiences of the mind, body and heart.
The serene elegance of our spatial design creates a perfect platform for us to offer bespoke integrative health and wellness on demand to our discerning guests. Drawing from the internal pool of our globally acclaimed master visiting practitioners, we are further able to offer the luxury of programmes on our doorstep, culled from various parts of the world.
How do you see this sector developing in the coming months and years?
Amongst the privileged and affluent there is a growing awareness of the need for deeper regular programmes and experiences of vitality, vigour, wellness, well-being and total integrative health. As the intelligent quest for the luxury of this expertise increases, we as a company continue to invest in our resources and grow.