Made in IndiaCrafted in the ITC laboratory, luxury spa brand Kaya Kalp is set toroll out across India

The quintessentially Indian hotelcompany has taken its desi-ness a

notch higher. 'No one gives you Indialike we do' is not only the ITc-Wel-comgroup tagline but also its core phi-losophy. And this be-Indian credo,limited till now to its industry recog-nition as a leader in Indian cuisine,has finally gained girth. The Rsl,174crore company has launched KayaKalp, an indigenous spa brand deeplyrooted in traditional Indian wellnessphilosophies, which also indulges incontemporary spa methods. Hatch-ling of the lTC iilcubatpr, Kaya Kalp isanother lTC endeavour to assimilate,package and brand India. Launched inlate 2008 at lTC Mughal it stole amarch on bigger and better knownrivals by being awarded the 'World'sBest City Spa' by Tatler's 2008 SpaGuide in its very first season. lTC iscurrently in the process of expandingKaya Kalp, making it the generic spabrand across its luxury properties.

"At lTC we are rooted in the salt,"says Dipak Haksar coo, operations."We make that effort to be a little more Kaya Kalp: creating a distinct brand identityIndian." And that effort goes intO everyaspect - including wellness. When fit- it a permanent place on the wellnessness was the industry norm the 1977 map. "Toda ever hotel has a spa.vintage lTCMaurya offered Kaya Kalp, argely, pampering spas that proVidethe health club. With the shift to well-' reIaxatl0n sessions to hotel guests,"ness ITCMaratha opened 2000 with a says Khanna whose business hotelwellness centre, which though not brand, Ista, offers Ananda therapies atbranded was' homespun, drew on '-fts properties across BangaIore, Hyder-Indian wellness principles and was abad and Amritsar.extremely popular. In 2003 the Wel-comgroup opened its first full-fledged,13,000 sq ft lUxury spa at the lTCSonar,a business resort. However till the99,000 sq ft Kaya Kalp opened at thelTCMughal there was no brand associ-ated with lTC'S decade-old wellnessmovement. Despite entering a clut-tered market as a stand-alone productKaya Kalp created a distinct brandidentity and gained recognition.

And while India reveled in KayaKalp, the brand was being altered totravel across Luxury Collection proper-ties. "We had existing health clubs and

wellness centres which needed to beupgraded, as a customised spa fits inwith our core-value of creating uniqueguest experiences," explains Haksar.Globally, the spa industry is worth$254 billion with 100 million annualspa goers worldwide. Amongst the ~r-liest to hone-in on this sumise industrywas Ashok Khanna, MD, lHHR, wholaunched India's first destination spa,Ananda, which globally feted, secure~

is now all set to cl).ange the fortunes ofLe Meridien. Beyond hotel spas arestand-alones, corner wellness shops, .the Kerala Ayurvedic chain and inter-national brands queuing up to de-stress and detox India. Yet aga!!!making the first move, last year IHHRlaunched the Ananda Spa Institute inHyderabad - the world's first to offertraining in yoga, ayurveda and interna-tional treatments under one roof.

Khanna reasons there are too manyspas and not enou h hands. "Soon itWI e t e industry norm to have cer-tTfied therapists," he predicts, saying. the future of hotel s as lies in s eciali-. sa l0n as opposed to the current normof general spas. And Kaya Kalp is in

Detoxing IndiaTaj Group went from importingAngsana and Mandara spas to recog-nising that wellness is rooted in Indiaand launching Jiva in 2003. Todaythere are over 20 Jiva spas across prop-erties and brands. The Oberoi Group,realising that travellers were demand-ing services that help de-stress, enteredinto a partnership with Banyan Tree tomanage the spas at all its luxury hotelsand resorts as early as 2001. Amatrra isrecognised as the reason behind thenew-found success ofThe Ashok, and it

sync. While the key philosophy willremain unaltered, regional touches arebeing explored and processed to createdistinctive themes ensuring a uniquesignature to each. "Kaya Kalp is notBukhara where the dal needs to havethe very same flavour," says Haksar.Rather, each spa will celebrate individ-uality by focussing narrowly on thewellness requirement of the city whilebringing in regional flavour. So whileAgra recreates Mughal magnificence,local nuances are being tested andhome remedies perfected to befit afive-star experience across Mumbai,ew Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore,

Chennai and Kolkata. Also Jaipur,which though not among the LuxuryCollection has been deemed fit to earna Kaya Kalp. What remains to beseen is whether it conquers all 127ITC-Welcomgroup properties.

• NUPUR MAHAJAN-SINH