Dubai: For decades our inclination towards self-pampering has prompted entrepreneurs to travel to the misty jungles and snowy peaks in search of natural ingredients to add an exotic edge to spa treatments.
When Tarja Visan set out to launch her spa chain B/Attitude, she looked at combining eastern and western medical traditions, ambience and music to fill a niche in the industry.
Originally from Finland, Visan started off as an international model constantly on the move and constantly having to look good. In 1986 she married Raymond Visan and together they established the famous chillout destination Buddha Bar.
A big part of its ambience came after Visan established the music label George V Records with which they produced music in accordance with the restaurant's ethos.
It was after years of working in the entertainment and F&B spaces that Visan decided to combine music, decor and the concept of the Buddha Bar to create B/Attitude.
"The first idea was that it had to do with the restaurant Buddha Bar in terms of music and service. I also wanted to fuse East and West together," said Visan.
Buddha Bar
Her first outlet was the Buddha Bar Spa in Evian les Bains, France. From there she's branched out to Doha, Dubai and most recently Dakar.
The treatment menu spans continents. The spa offers everything from herbal treatment from Tibet to a good hamam scrub down modelled on the famous baths of Turkey. Visan's research into the treatments and products has taken her across Asia to source from Malaysia, Himalayas, Tibet and the US.
"I travel a lot; I worked with a lady in Bandoum, Indonesia. I stayed there for a couple of months putting the ingredients together and learning from her," Visan said.
Even the trainers are from the East and the main trainer is a former monk.
As it is at their restaurant brand, music is a big part of the spa experience.
"We created our own style of music for B/Attitude. We use more instruments and vocals where we are doing the production ourselves. The spas are very much a destination which is created through the ambience."
Focus on Africa
After recently opening a location in Dakar, Senegal, she is now looking to Angola, adding: "I believe the African countries are going to be a good destination."
However, it's a hard business to get into and even harder to expand globally.
"The spa business is very expensive — spas need a lot of labour and in certain countries the labour costs, which are all in services, are very high," she added.
"The less service you give, [the] less happy the client will be. There needs to be enough people — someone can be on the phone, another can be with the walk-in client, one person to serve you your drink and another to do the treatment."
The hard part also extends to choosing the staff. "When you pick the men and women to do the treatment, they have to have their mind and spirit in the work," Visan said.
"I want to keep this happiness, wellness and balance for my clients. Not everyone can do it and in Europe it's difficult to find good people."
With such an expensive set-up there are areas where they are not quite ready to enter, such as the European market where spas are only functional during the busy tourist months.
"I admire people who can open the spa for six months, close and next year start again," said Visan.
"I had the possibility to sign the licence, but I'm not doing it because I can't afford to close my spa for half the year... That's why we are doing the work in Bucharest and Budapest. Here in Dubai it's very important, not only for the tourist spa. We want to have the local people come and enjoy as much as the tourists."
