Luxury Travel Trends 2020: 8 luxury destinations to get local with indigenous spa therapy

 

Indigenous spa therapies.

As Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) marks its 30th anniversary in 2020 and celebrates three decades as the pioneer of luxury boutique hotels, the hospitality group certainly developed a keen eye for trends and concepts in the luxury hotel space.

SLH‘s “Luxury Travel Trends 2020” report is centeres around sustainability, wellbeing, community, food, escapes and emerging destinations. s. The idea of paring things back and offering the best of the basics for a true sense of luxury isweaved throughout.

“By curating and championing the very best small independently owned hotels across the globe, we can see that our guests are demonstrating a deeper, yet simple purpose: the search for uncomplicated, authentic and honest luxury,” said SLH in the report.

As everyday life continues to become more technology-driven, there is a strong desire for down-to-earth therapy and spa practices that use traditional foods, plant-based medicines, and ancient rituals.

Here are 8 luxury hotels and resorts that are creating a sense of local community or indigenous spa therapies:

KASA Hotel Riviera Maya lets guests immerse in a traditional Mayan Clay Bath with an interactive healing spa experience designed to energize, hydrate and detoxify the skin.

Guests can indulge in a milk bath and hay bed or “Alpenbadl” at Le Refuge de la Traye in Meribel, France – milk baths have long been known for their relaxing and hydrating properties, and the hay beds have been practiced by Tyrolean farmers for generations.

The Hemingways Nairobi Spa in Kenya combines both French and custom-designed treatments crafted from locally sourced ingredients. Bespoke treatments include exfoliating rituals using coconut and a selection of traditional African massage techniques.

Villa Franca in Positano offers The Scent of Positano, a ritual that uses famed lemons from the Amalfi coast to promote detoxification.

The Fortress Resort & Spa in Sri Lanka offers traditional South Asian Ayurvedic therapies including Shirodhara, a classical treatment in which selected herbal oil is poured in a continuous stream on the forehead which nourishes the central nervous system.

Tanjong Jara Resort in Malaysia has a spa philosophy called Sucimurni. The unique restorative Malay treatments have been handed down from generation to generation and are believed to have their origins in the convergence of Malay, Arab, Indian and Chinese influences.

Le M de Megève in the French Alps offers a hot sand therapy based on the thousand-year-old Psammotherapy technique, which relieves pain and brings deep relaxation.

Taking advantage of its location on Vulcano (off the north coast of Sicily), Therasia Resort Sea and Spa offers various treatments using Vulcano mud, bioactive volcanic minerals and ancient rituals involving the spring thermal waters.