Perspectives of implementation of wellness services in hospitality properties

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School of Economics and Management, Far Eastern Federal University

PERSPECTIVES OF IMPLEMENTATION OF WELLNESS SERVICES IN HOSPITALITY PROPERTIES

V.V. Chistyak

Wellness services have already become an established trend, which continues to become more popular. That is why this trend should be considered within the framework of hospitality industry: hospitality properties have many different options to implement wellness services.

Wellness is a conception of healthy lifestyle which is based on a combination of physical and mental well-being, proper nutrition, reasonable physical exertion and bad habits refusal [2].

The main purpose of wellness is a prevention of diseases and retention of youth, both physical and inner.

Wellness services are varied: they include services that provide a material basis for wellness, such as fitness halls, spa complexes, banyas and saunas, restaurants and cafes with healthy food, swimming pools and sports grounds, parks with natural resources, - as well as services dedicated to provide the mental health of a person - cultural programs, psychological trainings, yoga sessions, meditation and other.

Speaking of wellness services market of Vladivostok, it should be noticed that services of this type are generally provided in such companies as spas, massage parlors, gyms and fitness centers and not in hospitality properties.

Despite of poor development of Vladivostok wellness services market in hospitality properties, such firms have a great potential for development in wellness area [4].

Vladivostok is located on the Sea of Japan coast. Such location has an additional advantage for the hospitality properties of the city, seeking to meet the status of wellness-oriented hotels. The use of marine resources can not only attract clients to the hotel, but also become its special feature: fresh seafood in the hotel restaurant menu, is not only very useful but also tasty; many of the procedures in the spa complex can include the use of curative sea water or water plants. The sea air and the sea itself - are real natural treasures for hotels located outside the city on the coast.

Despite the good location of the city, only a few hotels use this advantage. Other components of the wellness concept that can be implemented in the accommodation facilities, such as fitness centers or restaurants with a healthy meal, are also used only in a few hotels of Vladivostok.

The most popular additional service in the majority of Vladivostok hotels is a sauna. The number of hotels with sauna include: “Aquilon”, “Ostrovok”, “Relax”, “Atlant”, “Hutorok”, “Gostiniy Dvor”, “Busse”, “Variant”, “Slavyanskaya” and “Villa Arte”. “Zhemchuzhina” and “Moryak” hotels also have swimming pools. All these hotels are located within Vladivostok, except “Villa Arte” which is in suburban area.

Despite the fact that a sauna is a good example of wellness service, the saunas in these hotels should be considered as leisure elements, rather than wellness elements because in other aspects hotels do not follow the wellness conception.

There are hotels with a greater variety of wellness offers in Vladivostok. Hotels providing wellness services are presented in Table 1.

Table 1 - Hotels providing wellness services

Source: author's research compiled with the help of hotels websites

Nevertheless, these hotels are also not wellness oriented properties. The services provided there can be viewed only as additional because these establishments do not have a single concept of wellness hotels with special design, sport programs, programs of healthy nutrition and other wellness elements.

A special feature should be noticed when speak about suburban accommodation facilities - location in suburban area. This feature is an important component of wellness oriented hotels as the territory with natural landscapes and fresh air has a beneficial effect on the human body. Therefore, in this case suburban hotels have supplemental competitive advantages in comparison with the city hotels.

Suburban hospitality properties and their characteristics in terms of wellness are presented in Table 2.

Table 2 - Suburban hospitality properties providing wellness services

The analysis of Vladivostok hotels in terms of wellness shows that the city hotels are not influenced by the world wellness trend, since they almost do not have wellness services. However, such additional service as banya or sauna can be frequently found in Vladivostok hotels. This situation can be connected with the Russian mentality because banya has always been a popular place for Russian people: it served not only as an excellent place for recovery but also as a way of spending time pleasantly.

A distinctive feature of Vladivostok is that wellness services are more developed in suburban accommodation facilities than in urban areas, which is connected with the location of such hotels in a natural environment, providing possibilities for organizing outdoor sports grounds, walking parks and beaches. Nevertheless, suburban hotels are also only at the beginning of organizing wellness services at their properties.

As noted previously, wellness philosophy has become a real trend in our time and wellness tourism is gaining more popularity. Accordingly, wellness oriented hotels are becoming more demanded. Although this statement is fair for Russia, however, wellness industry has reached the biggest development abroad [3]. health service business improving

A survey was developed and conducted to find out the relevance of hotel wellness services among Vladivostok population. The purpose of the research was the determination of the degree of demand for services and identification of the most interesting services for residents of Primorye. 120 people took part in the survey, different groups were among them: youth and students, adults and citizens of the "third age". As 95% of the respondents indicated vacation as the most common purpose of their travel, research was analyzed in terms of this segment of tourists.

The survey showed that the most popular additional services in hotels for the residents of Primorsky Krai are restaurant and swimming pool, which is clearly reflected in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - The comparison of the additional services demand among residents of Vladivostok

On the second place of importance are spa complex and banya or sauna. Considering the food issue in the hotel in detail, it should be said that 65% of respondents stated in the survey that they try to take care of their food while traveling, and 40% eat at the hotel.

Sport activities in the trips were less important: only 35% of respondents keep this habit during the holidays. It is pointed out by the small interest in fitness halls and sports grounds at hotels. However, yoga classes organized by the hotel and carried out by professionals, engaged 65% of respondents, despite the fact that the classes are regularly attended only by 5% of respondents.

Pollees also noted the importance of landscaped area in natural surroundings with paths for walking. 85% of respondents expressed confidence that the hotel with a landscaped area with parks and sports grounds is more attractive for them.

Wellness is not the development in the physical terms only. It has an impact on the mental, emotional and social sides of people's life. That's why cultural activities should be also included into the complex of services of the wellness hotel. The research, where as an example of events in hotels were musical concerts and dance evenings, detected that hotels holidaymakers are appealed with such forms of spending their leisure time. 80% of pollees would like to visit such events.

Wellness services in hotels are additional services. 60% of respondents answered the question “Are you ready to pay for additional services?” positively. It shows a rather high degree of efficiency of these services because they can get supplemental profit to the property. The increasing demand for wellness services in the world testifies advantage of these services in hospitality firms. The probability of demand growth in a short time in Russia is also rather high in connection with the wellness trend popularization.

The study of the relevance of wellness services among Vladivostok consumers revealed that the city hotels in a greater degree should focus on the local community, whose members can become regular customers of the wellness centers at the hotels, than on newly arrived guests.

There are various marketing tools to ensure the success of the company and improve sales efficiency - means of creating the relationship between the consumer and the company or a complex of activities which purpose is to influence the market members [1].

During the process of preparing the paper, the following recommendations for the promotion of wellness services in the hospitality properties were developed:

- Offer of the widest range of related products. If the hotel positions itself as a wellness hotel, it should offer customers not one or two types of services, for example, a banya and a swimming pool, but the most complete complex of services;

- Realization of an active advertising, providing the knowledge of the existence of wellness services to the local community;

- Creating the image of the company, which is concerned with the health and well-being of customers. Maintaining a well-wishing public opinion about the company's services, as well as retention of regular customers with the help of loyalty programs;

- Determination and use of the most effective pricing policy, taking into account the system of discounts and bonuses and stimulating demand with the help of sales promotions and special offers [5].

In conclusion, the promotion of wellness services in hospitality properties should be realized with consideration of a target segment of consumers of these services on purpose of elaborating the most effective offers that are more likely to interest customers of a certain group. Also, the successful development of the complex of services in the hotel depends on how proper the marketing tools are used.

Wellness services in Vladivostok hospitality properties are only on the lowest level of development. The overwhelming majority of the city establishments providing wellness services are not hospitality enterprises. Such companies have a narrow specialization in providing a specific service like spa salons. Nevertheless, hotels can enter into mutually beneficial agreements with these companies in order to attract customers to their businesses.

In comparison with city hotels, a much greater advancement of wellness services was reached in suburban accommodation facilities of Vladivostok. In suburban hotels guests are offered a wider range of services, corresponding to the wellness conception. An additional advantage of such hotels is a hotels territory in a nature environment. Favorably different hotel complex among all the others is "Mayak", which positions itself as a family recreation center with a wide range of recreational services, an ergonomic design and maintaining the wellness concept of spending time with maximum benefit and pleasure.

According to the results of the survey among Vladivostok residents, it was revealed that developers of hotel wellness services in Primorsky Krai should move in the direction of healthy food organizing and working out of water complexes. Sports facilities at the hotel will be popular among local community. Also, the design of a wellness services complex at a hotel should be made with considering of cultural programs and the ecological aspect of business.

When elaborating a strategy of wellness services promotion in hospitality properties, it is necessary to select the target market. This market will be a basement for formation of a services complex and for planning the most effective ways to attract customers in appliance with this complex. Marketing tools should be necessarily used, in order to determine and use the most appropriate strategies for customer's attraction. Among the most important aspects that hotel should take into consideration before implementing the services are advertising and public relations, as well as pricing policy and price formation.

References

1) Wellness. Date views: 01.03.2017 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellness_(alternative_medicine).

2) Ophelia Yeung, Katherine Johnston. 2015. The Global Wellness Tourism Economy Report 2013 & 2014. Global Wellness Institute, 2015. 112 p.

3) James R. Abbey. 2014. Hospitality Sales and Marketing. Michigan, American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute, pp: 619.

Annotation

The purpose of the article is to find out the potential of implementation of wellness services in hotels of Primorsky Krai. Several methods are presented in the research, such as comparison of services in different hotels of Vladivostok and questioning the prospects. The study identified the results of the poor development of wellness services in hotels of Primorsky Krai but the big potential for the growth in the wellness direction. Several recommendations of development of wellness services in hotels are presented in the article. The study may be useful for hoteliers, travel agencies and tour operators, business representatives in wellness sphere and everybody interested in wellness.

Key words: wellness, services, perspectives, implementation, hospitality, hospitality properties, health, well-being, hotel.

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