Talking hotel wellness sustainability with Alejandro Leo
Welcome to episode 73 of the Green Healthy Places podcast in which we discuss the themes of wellbeing and sustainability in real estate and hospitality today.
I'm your host Matt Morley and this week I'm in the Caribbean talking to Alejandro Leo, a hotel wellness, spa and sustainability expert. He's worked for luxury resorts like Oetker Collection - Jumby Bay Island resort in Antigua, where he managed the spa and sustainability program, prior to that he was Global Head of Wellness for Habitas, probably one of the most innovative and unique hotel groups out there right now.
He also previously worked for Azulik in Tulum in Mexico which is truly one of the world's most inspiring projects. He's also worked for some big hotel brands like Six Senses, a leading sustainable hotel example, Belmond and Rosewood.
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Alejandro Leo, wellness sustainability in resorts hotels
Alejandro thanks for joining us!
01:17.31
Alejandro Leo
Thank you for hosting me, amazing to be here and sharing a little bit of what I've been doing for the last years in my career and also my passion of wellness.
01:30.48
mattmorley
Cool, let's jump into it. So when you look at the current wellness fitness and and spa offering in the Caribbean, which is where you developed a lot of your own personal experience, what's happening there. What are the current trends in hotel wellness sustainability?
Wellness and sustainability in Caribbean hotel resorts
01:57.59
Alejandro Leo
Well, as as you know, hospitality industry is growing very fast around the world generally but Latin America and the Caribbean it's a particularly fast growth right now. The Caribbean islands are exclusive, often very expensive islands, where people love to come on vacation for the beauty of the beaches, natural landscape and local culture, local community.
Everything is very raw. So yeah, we're going back to the basics, people are looking for those experiences you know, but in terms of wellness we are not at the same level yet.
You know the Caribbean islands they are still not at the level of the Middle East, North America or Europe, they are still developing in that sense. There's still not enough trained professionals to fill the demand.
So in my view there's a lot of potential to develop professionals here as more people are interested in becoming practitioners in the hotel wellness, resort fitness, hotel yoga and any other wellness practices.
Jumby Bay Island Resort, Oetker Collection
Developing professional skills in hotel wellness in the Caribbean
03:43.11
mattmorley
So when you think about what's happening now and what might need to happen in the future in the in the coming years. Do you see primarily the focus centered more around professional development, training, education as the main opportunity right now?
04:04.85
Alejandro Leo
Yes, training and development definitely, there is a part of the local community interested in moving into hospitality and wellness so I think brands need to start investing more to educate locals, to ensure this becomes a true wellness destination in future.
Not just the hotel and resort properties but even each of the islands and governments too. They have to position their islands and culture as a wellness destination.
Recruitment challenges in Caribbean wellness resort destinations
04:46.38
mattmorley
So you've got a mix of hiring locally, more for attitude and personality than experience, then presumably there are a number of people who are brought in who have that experience but they're a minority on any overall team within the resort.
That's how it works when you're in a quite a remote location right? You're on a small island near Antigua. It can't be an easy place to go hire a resort spa and wellness team I'm guessing?
05:28.31
Alejandro Leo
Correct. But as I mentioned you know more local people are interested now because the people who are recruited from broad it's mostly just for temporary opportunities when we come here, perhaps for one or two years.
What is happening in Antigua now is that you can see more places opening fitness centers, healthy restaurants and a community of wellness people. We just had the World Wellness Weekend in September with the Antiguan and Barbuda tourism authorities.
They were very involved supporting the ambassadors to promote wellness around the island and that is very important in every single island around the Caribbean. Local people have to travel outside of Antigua to prepare themselves professionally, take extra certifications and gain experience in the sector.
Adopting a hotel sustainability strategy in Caribbean resorts
07:02.67
mattmorley
Clearly nature is a big part of the resort experience for the guests. It's all about reconnecting with nature, getting out of the city and spending time in this idyllic remote location with sandy beaches, clear seas.. and so that needs protecting, which leads us to the topic of Resort Sustainability.
How far have these Caribbean resorts adopted a strategy around sustainability? Is that happening or do you think there a gap there, for example, in sustainable hotel operations or sustainable hotel design?
07:55.12
Alejandro Leo
Well, it's happening in baby steps but the words hotel sustainability and resort wellness are suddenly everywhere here. It's really about education. It's about how we are educating our people - some people think that sustainability is only about recycling and not using plastic bottles but it's an entire lifestyle.
Glass bottles and plastic in the Caribbean - educating the local community
It's how we care for the environment. And by caring about the environment We are caring about other people so that's when you combine the way you build hotels with work with the local community and concern for carbon emissions. As these are small islands, the opportunity is to make a big impact with education because there are fewer people to connect with that in a big city.
The hotel companies that are doing business here are part of larger international corporations so they are able to bring that knowledge and expertise to the Caribbean islands to implement change.
Hotel wellness sustainability at Jumby Bay Island Resort
09:52.11
mattmorley
So luxury hotel brands like the Oetker Collection for example that have a lot of historic resorts around Europe, from ski resorts to city hotels and beach resorts, presumably import their hotel sustainability standards when they arrive?
Did you find that the sustainability standards came from group level or is that something that's being worked out by the individual hotel or resort on site according to circumstances? How much is how much support is coming from the brand at that point and how much is actually just done by the the local team.
Alejandro Leo
Well, the support from the from the global brand is full support yes, the standards are coming from corporate. This is the case not only with Oetker but most of the hotel brands in fact (see Oetker Collection on Sustainability here).
Of course you need to adapt to the location. At Jumby Bay Islands we had support from the corporate office and from the homeowners.
It's a private island owned by homeowners with holiday homes there, so Jumby Bay Island Services takes care of the entire island on their behalf, so having programs about how to to take care of the reef, recycling plastic, crushing used glass, composting organic waste, installing solar panels, onsite water treatment and so on is all coordinated through them.
Dealing with single use plastics in an island resort
Alejandro Leo
The problem that you sometimes face is where to send the plastic, where should it go? Maybe you need to send it to different island, or to the mainland, to Central America, Panama, it's not easy to find companies to manage that process. That's also when you start really looking hard at your situation and finding creative solutions to problems but it is a challenge for sure.
Universal sustainability principles
mattmorley
The principles behind sustainability in a sense universal they don't change - carbon emissions, waste management, water efficiency, sustainable source materials used in buildings and interiors, developing an ethical low-impact supply chain... it's the same in essence no matter the location. It's then about how it's delivered within the local context obviously.
Innovation in resort wellness concepts
We can think of wellness in a similar way, a lot of the facilities and amenities that we associate with hotel wellness are consistent around the world especially in big chain hotels.
You'll likely find a hammam, a massage treatment room, a gym, perhaps a local running route... some things change obviously.
When you worked for a rule-breaking brand like HABITAS for example, how they they i to take wellness in a new direction that reflected the brand?
Integrating wellness into the hotel guest experience
Alejandro Leo
When when we talk about wellness everything is a lifestyle and when you're traveling you are looking for those places, hotels and brands that offer you that lifestyle.
It's not only having a yoga shala or a gym. It's the entire experience, from arrival to departure. The moment you arrive into the hotel. The experience, the people, the smile the warmth.
Six Senses wellness
Wellness programming in resorts
Brands like Habitas are very strong in programming, from 7am all the way until 10pm they're combining music, yoga, mindfulness, outdoor activities, fitness, even conversations about their sustainability practices.
So it's not that you are checking-in and then just waiting for something to happen. They will engage you from the start! It's education and when you have a hotel brand sharing their knowledge, beliefs, and philosophy it really makes an impact.
mattmorley
I like how you describe it, this new generation of brands with wellness in their DNA, it has been brought in to centre stage rather than being just an extra. There is this generation of people who have wellness as part of their DNA, it's certainly how I live, the same with sustainability.
Once you've seen it, once you've understood that plastic doesn't just disappear, it lasts for hundreds of years, you can't unsee that.
Alejandro Leo
Correct. It gives you a lot as a professional because you need to be involved working with the Food & Beverage Team, the Front Office Team, you need to get involved working in with the entire hotel operation by sharing all this and and bringing professionals from different parts of the world into the programming to offer a range of guest experiences.
mattmorley
Do you think it's fair to say that the meaning of wellness then has evolved over the last few years at least in the perspective of hotels and resorts? Have you seen a shift after Covid?
Alejandro Leo
Well, this is very simple wellness is the new hospitality concept. Many years ago it was just about massage treatment rooms and a fitness centre. Today many people now relate a wellness to yoga or meditation, for example.
It's like what you do, creating hotel gym concepts, not just a space with four walls and fitness equipment in it, that's not enough any more.
Habitas, Saudi Arabia
Hotel gym concepts
If your guests are flying in from New York or London they probably have 1000m2 plus gym they use there so how can we do things differently on an island to create a unique experience for our guests?
Come and see how nature can improve your health, maybe we have vertical gardens, sustainable materials. Can you offer a different mindset to help guests escape from stress? Can we connect guests with local culture?
Again, it goes back to sustainability, supporting the local community, changing lifestyles through better practices and so on.
mattmorley
I recently published a report on Recovery, Biohacking & Longevity in Spas looking at innovations such as infrared saunas, ice baths, IV drip treatments.
In the process of researching that and looking at boutique biohacking studios that are opening in Los Angeles, New York and London I realized a few hotels had started to pick up on this trend already.
I wonder how much hotels have to keep up with the lifestyle that their guests are used to? If you've got a membership at Equinox New York, having ice baths and infrared saunas is pretty standard by now, they're already doing it. Can hotel spas risk being left behind in this sense?
Alejandro Leo
Yeah, this is a very valid point and this is something that I experience here at Jumby Bay Island, one of the reasons why I was developing this new wellness concept is because the existing offer was a little bit 'flat' and we wanted to take it the next level. Even the homeowners were saying they had better options back in London in their home neighborhood.
These hotel brands need to invest not just in facilities but their people too, to raise awareness of what is happening elsewhere, through training certifications and exposure to other markets in a development program.
Implementing a hotel sustainability plan
mattmorley
So when you're implementing a sustainability plan, a hotel may not have a Sustainability Manager full time in-house with the resort so is it a case of creating your Green Team internally with advocates in different departments, from spa, to rooms division, F&B, housekeeping?
Alejandro Leo
Correct. Yes, it's it's not easy. You cannot do it by yourself, you need to get involved every single department. You need to find people with a lot of passion about environment and about caring for others because that is true sustainability.
It's how you care for the environment, how you care for people, how you care for yourself. You know because there's future generations or present generations. You know who like to know more and but they are looking for that there there is hunger of how to be better, how to help the planet and how to be a better person.
When I worked for Six Senses Resorts I fell in love with sustainability at the level that I'm at right now. I remember when I was in Thailand in 2019 we had an initiative of 'Zero Plastic by 2022' and most of their properties achieved that, of course they have gone even further since then.
When you work for Six Senses it's not only the spa team who are into wellness and sustainability, it's the entire hotel staff, it's really the DNA of the brand, their culture, it's just how they do things.
Alejandro Leo