Spirituality and manicures: spas extend beyond old rich women to carve significant market niche.

Spas have been mushrooming in Mexico over the last two years, bringing a range of new offerings--from traditional beauty treatments to more spiritual, holistic exercises--to travelers and changing the face of the tourism industry.

The spa world offers the ultimate contrast to the "beach, beer and burn" holiday, and spas complement the now-cliched perception of city life as stressful and unhealthy. It seems they thrive in a culture that holds most of what we ingest to be suspect--additives in food, dangerous airborne particles, genetically altered crops or hormone-infested meat.

In a post-9/11 world, the spa vocabulary of peace, care and cure, leaving toxins and troubles behind has gained further appeal. At the end of 2001, spas were reportedly the only sector of the tourism industry that had not crumpled after the attacks.

At first, "Sept. 11 hit us hard--every part of the tourism industry was a wreck," said Adriana Lecuona, who has opened two spas in Puerto Vallarta and will open a new spa in May in the Hacienda de Los Laureles in Oaxaca.

"But then the hotel and tourism industry in Mexico realized that the national market was still very good," she said. "Instead of going to Beverly Hills or Miami for treatments, now they would ask for them in Mexico."

After 9/11, everyone began to feel a sense of inherent fragility, according to Lecuona. "Those who previously thought spas were mumbo jumbo started looking inside. People who lost money realized money was not everything--they got more sensitive."

BIG BUSINESS

Spas in Mexico are now doing a roaring trade, with the last two years in particular being key to their development here, according to Claudia Najera, director of the seven-year-old Mexican Spa Association, MexSpa.

Ten years ago--when people started looking for a new type of tourism, one that prioritized a sense of balance and the quest for a better life--there were only ten spas in Mexico, while the Tourism Secretariat's figures for 2000 show there are 120," Najera said.

Although there are no statistics yet for the rate of growth of spas in the last couple of years, MexSpa membership--which now has 30 member spas--grew by 23% from 2001 to 2002. However, the industry undoubtedly is big business--bringing in US$5 billion annually in the United States alone, according to a recent survey prepared for the International Spa Association (ISPA) by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

COURTING NEW CUSTOMERS

Spas are an increasingly essential part of new business projects. The new Hotel Sheraton in Mexico City's Historic Center aims to open a 1,000-square-meter rooftop spa and sports center on July 1.

"Mexico is now a spa destination, with Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun. And now we are trying to develop this in the capital too," said the manager of this new spa and gym, Jose Rodrigo Garcia. "Business people are now investing money in spas, showing that they recognize the importance of this trend."

Orlando Hidalgo co-owns and directs the pioneering spa at Hosteria Las Quintas in Cuernavaca and is international liaison officer for ISPA. "Here spas used to be associated with wealthy, elite women," Hidalgo said. "But it's changing."

A tireless spa promoter and enthusiast, the Cuba-born Hidalgo said, "The spa industry is coming of age. Now you can really say, 'Build it. The clients will come.'

With the growth of the industry in Mexico, there is a push for stricter standards--an effort to protect customers and service-providers alike. Work is now advanced on a "Quality Standard" for Mexico's spas, which insiders hope will give birth to a standard for spas around the country.

"People's expectations have changed," Lecuona said in Qaxaca. "Some people hear spa and think of treatments, but it is harmful for the industry to have hotels saying they have a spa, and really it's only a massage room with scented candles."

MexSpa recognizes the following classifications: destination spa, day spa, hotel or amenity spa, medical spa, thermal spa (i.e. hot springs), "thermalismo marino" (i.e. the lasso therapy centers), holistic and spa club. The majority of its spa members are destination spas, considered the top niche of the industry worldwide. Hotels here are realizing that they have to have a spa to be competitive, so they are either refitting existing installations or including a spa in plans for new hotels.

One example would be the spa atop Mexico City's Hotel Fiesta Americana Grand Chapultepec that opened in June 2001. It offers a stunning view over the Chapultepec Park from the exercise room and toward the exclusive Santa Fe area from the jacuzzi.

Veronica Santibanez, spa manager, said, "Stress and life in big cities, have led people to seek alternatives in holistic medicine ... and this is where spas play an important role. The amenity spa has grown in importance in the last four years because, in addition to guaranteeing quality of service during the guest's hotel stay, it offers the possibility to relax the mind, body and spirit."

GETTING HOLISTIC

In the holistic spa market, Mexico's great pioneer is the Mision del Sol, which opened seven years ago near Cuernavaca. In January, this holistic resort had the highest occupation of all hotels in the state of Morelos, and it now has an international franchise program.

Asked for the secret of its success, Ericka Meier, one of the resort's founders pointed out it blends the attractions of Cuernavaca's deliciously warm climate with a living tradition of alternative medicine (it has a temazcal, of course) and a shift in consciousness in Mexico toward holistic living.

Tai-chi master Emir Dupeyron, who gives a 20-minute meditation or exercise session before business conferences at the Mision del Sol, has enjoyed success with such high-profile firms as TV Azteca and Hewlett Packard, and he is now regularly invited to offices to work with executives on a personal level. "They notice that points of discord reduce and there is improved unity of thinking after meditation," Dupeyron said.

Back at the beach, the spa world is also being tested for possible congruity with the sun-and-beer promise of package holidays. In October 2001, Palace Resorts opened the mind-boggling and impressively stylish Aventura Spa Palace on the Maya Riviera, with 1000 rooms and over 100 treatment rooms.

ENTER THE TRENDY

Rafael Micha, an associate of Mexico's internationally known (largely for their design) hotels Habita in Mexico City and Deseo in Playa del Carmen, is keeping a close eye on the spa market and looking for opportunities to exploit it.

"For us, the spa has been more about how to differentiate the properties from the rest of the market than responding to an ever-growing international trend," Micha said. "Our intake on the spa is like a signature for the group.

Habita, which is located in the posh Mexico City neighborhood of Polanco, has a soul-lifting rooftop spa named Aqua that offers views over the financial center's skyline. On the coast, the trendy Deseo--which has been featured on the cover of Conde Nast Traveller--is content with a floaty open-air massage bed and a therapist on call to treat you with crystals.

The group's new hotel, Condesa, is due to open at the end of the year in the Mexico City neighborhood bearing its name. Overlooking Parque Espana, the Condesa won't make do with just a spa but will rather develop a delicious variant on the usual spa theme. This new twist will be a fourth-floor rooftop-terrace "hammam," an ancient tradition in the Arab world, which has become rather chic in Paris and is brand new to Mexico.

The relatively new holistic spa, Hostal de La Luz in Amatlan, close to Tepoztlan, Morelos, is currently building a business center too, which is due to be ready for the spring equinox.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

Weddings, where the pedicure and manicures and facials really come into play, are another important target for the spa market, and there is also an overlap with eco-tourism.

"Eco-tourism always goes with health tourism," said Lecuona. "Here at the Hacienda de los Laureles we will tie in the treatments with hikes to the San Felipe del Agua mountain, as well as the archeological zone."

With a better understanding of the market, new twists to draw attention to one's spa and the natural advantages Mexico brings to the industry, the spa industry here will continue to see certain growth.

Barbara Kastelein writes about Mexico travel and tourism for Fodor's Travel Publications, Conde Nast Traveller (UK) and the Sunday Express news paper in London.