Vermont’s New Life Hiking Spa, a pioneer in
wellness travel, has become the first WellHotel® Certified Hotel, Resort or Spa
in America. Established in 1978, New Life Hiking Spa has been at the forefront
of the wellness tourism industry for nearly four decades.
Mendon,
Vermont April 19, 2016
Founded
in 1978, New Life Hiking Spa has been a pioneer in destination spas which is
now considered “Wellness Tourism”. New Life has become internationally
recognized in this flourishing industry as an authentic, all-inclusive,
affordable and award-winning wellness vacation over the past four decades and
it is fitting that it is the first WellHotel® in America. There are currently
13 WellHotel® Certified hotels in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.
Travel
Weekly recently focused on the wellness travel boom. Baby Boomers accelerated
the wellness travel growth, but GenXers and Millennials are fast becoming the
growing consumers. According to a recent industry survey, they are all looking
for vacation options that include activities like hiking and weight loss
programming.
New Life
Hiking Spa was founded by Jimmy LeSage, M.S., who has been at the helm of New
Life as the Director for almost forty years. New Life’s early days consisted of
guests primarily from New York City and Boston who wanted a health spa
vacation. The business has more than doubled in the past decade due to
substantial recognition in a variety of top media outlets and industry awards.
New Life’s combination of impeccable wellness programming, outstanding customer
service and the ability to use Vermont’s beautiful landscape for outdoor
exercise, garners this esteemed spa a return guest ratio of over 40%. It
welcomes over 750 guests a year from around the globe.
Within
the past decade, Health Magazine touted New Life Hiking Spa as one of America’s
Four Great Weight Loss Spas and the Huffington Post, SELF Magazine, AARP,
Travel + Leisure and Rand McNally have all listed New Life as one of the top
health and wellness vacations. New Life was the winner of a 2015 Wellness
Travel Award by SpaFinder Wellness 365® and has been the #1 ranked spa on the
annual Top 100 Spas listing by Spas of America for 2014 & 2015.
“With
such rapid growth in wellness tourism, it represents some challenges in the
industry,” states Kathleen LeSage, President of New Life Hiking Spa. “It is
outstanding that wellness is now at the forefront of people’s minds when
planning vacations. However, with that growth, also comes the need to have a
certification process and complete wellness training in place. Hotels, resorts
and spa retreats need to do more than just offer a yoga class, there needs to
be training on how to truly take care of the unique needs of the wellness
tourist and a litmus test on the company history. We are extremely pleased to
be the first WellHotel® in the country and look forward to seeing the growth of
this industry. Requirements being implemented to be able to be considered a
WellHotel® will only help the wellness tourism industry and have it grow in
quality of service provided, not just quantity of hotels and spas that simply
state they are wellness focused”, Mrs. LeSage went on to say.
About the WellHotel® Certification Program
WellHotel®
Certification, developed exclusively for the hospitality industry, was designed
to enhance the operations of hospitality related businesses: Hotels, Resorts
and Spas. This designation certifies that hotels have the proper infrastructure
in place to cater to the unique needs of health & wellness tourists, or
guests that may engage in wellness services while traveling. The WellHotel®
Certification Program was developed by the Medical Tourism Association®, the
first membership-based international nonprofit trade organization for the
medical tourism and healthcare industries.
No comments:
Post a Comment