FOR MONICA MAJORS, recently appointed MSpa International’s first director of public relations, it’s a wonderful opportunity to tell the unique stories about the spas and their treatments in the MSpa family.
MSpa International managed all spas within Minor Hotels, including Anantara Hotels & Resorts and Spas — the most well known within the Minor Hotels Collection.
“Manty people around the world know us first as a spa company. A few years ago, we launched our wellness initiative, called Balance Wellness. It has continued to grow to the point where we realized the necessity for a dedicated position to curate and distribute these stories.
Spa and Wellness is also a segment of hospitality that really deserves its own dedicated team of experts.
“It’s a bit like sustainability – an immense amount of knowledge is necessary in order to ensure we’re really providing comprehensive information that is transparent and easily digested. Our guests have come to trust us as an authority in the industry, and these stories need to be told to foster that relationship,” she added.
“It means ensuring our dynamic offerings and unique stories are being recorded and then told. For example, Anantara Uluwatu in Bali works with a High Priestess to offer ritual chakra and past-life cleanses in holy temples – a truly unique and very cathartic experience that absolutely warrants traveling around the world to experience.
“Sometimes local experiences are taken for granted as being commonplace, but they’re anything but to the rest of the world.
“It’s easy for us to become jaded with what is readily available to us, but our guests are craving this information.
“I’m working across all of our brands to deliver stories like this. Anantara Spa is certainly a focus, but so is our upscale brand AVANI SPA. It’ll be the most number of takeovers for us in years moving forward, and the spa brand is very fresh, contemporary and fuss-free.”
She also noted that MSpa was in the final stages of creating four new Ayurvedic wellness programs at Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle in Sri Lanka, and will use this model across other resorts that can handle well-being experiences at that level. Smaller elements under MSpa;s Balance Wellness program that they can execute, such as nourishing cuisine or holistic movement.
Monica was previously cluster director of international PR for three resorts – Anantara Angkor Resort, Siem Reap, Cambodia; Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp & Resort, Chiang Rai, Thailand; and Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. Anantara Siam is the brand’s flagship hotel, following a rebrand in 2015. It embodies the luxury and fresh image of the brand, all while in the heart of the world’s most visited city.
What drew her to Anantara was its elephant conservation initiative – the Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation – based out of Anantara Golden Triangle.
“It was hard for me to leave behind my day-to-day interaction with the elephants. But luckily, Chiang Rai is only an 80-minute flight from Bangkok.”
Thai Spas Now 