Health, Wellness and Tourism: healthy tourists, healthy business ...

wellness facilities and cosmeceutical manufacturers and distributors. As tourism research is
only marginally addressing issues about co-branding and co-creation, the Internet and the
trade press has been an important supplementary source of knowledge on specific practices in
the global spa and wellness industry.
Spa Industries and their Suppliers – Cases from Denmark and Finland
The inclination to place additional weight on the spa products and the relations with the
producers and distributors of them can be demonstrated by the cases from Denmark and
Finland. The cases illustrating the strategies are far from uniform.
Table 1. Cases of co-operation and co-branding between cosmeceuticals and wellness firms.
Strategies of spa firms and cosmeceutical firms
Comwell Hotel
Chain
Development of a series of skin care products together with Matas, a retail
materialist chain. Intensive co-branding in shops and in the wellness facilities
in the hotels. Joint marketing campaigns. The “Spalosphy” series has been
very successful in the spas and as a retail product.
Vejlefjord Spa Development of private label cosmeceuticals to the spa. The products are
available in the spa and in the webshop. The suppliers of ingredients are
anonymous. The staff prepares the products in the “back office” on a regular
base, and there is a great concern about the freshness and the full and open
Queen Dorothea’s
Bath
declaration of the ingredients.
The theme of the bath is medieval, and historical line has also been chosen for
the spa product series, developed in collaboration with a local supplier of
cosmeceuticals. The concept will be developed in order to create a wider level
experience for the spa-users.
SeaWest Spa SeaWest imports an Islandic spa product series, chosen for its image of being
“clean”, and with ingredients from the Nordic natural environment. The
Anttolanhovi and
LUMENE
products are also available in the spa shop and on the web.
A distinct concept is the ‘wellness bar’ (following the idea of minibar), which
are found in Art&Design villas. The bars are filled with Finnish wellness
products from Lumene and Cutrin (both labels owned by LUMENE Oy). The
intention is to give customers a possibility to pamper themselves with
products with arctic ingredients.
Hotel Kalevala Hotel Kalelava uses Frantsila’s supplies, which concentrates on organically
grown and produced herbs and plants. Raw materials of the cosmeceuticals
are mainly cultivated for the purpose, but in addition some of the ingredients
are gathered from nature. All herbs and plants that are used are well known in
folk medicine, and as such used to enhance health and wellbeing and cure
illnesses.
Designermudder The firm is a cosmeceuticals producer diversifying into experiences and
events. The strategy to offer good and interesting skin care products, for
example coloured muds. However, additional services that enhance the
experience of the spa-user are also offered, and the specialists from the firm
are responsible for fun-events such as producing your own soap. The strategy
is also about building mutual relations with the spa facilities employees.
Guest Comfort Guest Comfort is a cosmetic supplier who acts as a creative intermediary
between cosmeceuticals and businesses in the tourism sector. It is also a
knowledge intermediary between spa facilities and the producers of
cosmeceuticals, and sees itself as a motivator for continual creativity in the
field.