By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and wellness services could become a ‘niche’ tourism sector for the Bahamas, an industry executive telling Tribune Business that a local chapter of the Caribbean Spa & Wellness Association (C-SWA) is set to be formed this year. The move is designed to put the Bahamas on track to becoming one of the leading health and wellness vacation destinations.

Janette Martin-Isaacs, president of JEMI Health & Wellness Spa, and one of the directors of the C-SWA, told Tribune Business: “Tourists come here already to rest and relax.

“If we are a part of C-SWA and we form a local chapter, which we intend to work to complete this year, then we will reach out to all the spa and wellness owners here in the Bahamas so that we could compile our data and see what our indigenous products are, and how we could market that so that we become one of the leading destinations for spa and wellness vacations.

“That would bring money into our tourism industry and individual business as well. This could definitely be a niche for us. I think for the last few years there has been focus on the health industry, where persons came for medical services. With spa and wellness services it’s more than medical services; these are well people looking to have a well and healthy vacation.”

Mrs Martin-Isaacs said the health and wellness services sector could attract many European visitors.

“When you look at the European travelers they tend to spend a little more on themselves, on spa services,” she said. “Many Americans do as well. If tourists were looking to come to the Bahamas and stay in one of our hotels, and would want to tap into a service outside of the hotel, which would possibly be cheaper, they would have a different experience than that of a hotel.

“Some of our programmes were licensed by places in the US. You have some tourists who are looking for services they can get in the Sates from a licensed person in the islands. If they see you are licensed under a particular institute for wellness, then they are more likely to tap into your service when they come to the Bahamas.”

Mrs Martin-Isaacs said the C-SWA was working to standardise the Caribbean health and wellness industry so that Caribbean operators could market themselves to the wider world.

She said the Bahamas could continue to grow its health and wellness sector with the help of the C-SWA.

“We have a lot of indigenous spa and wellness products,” she added. “There are people making scented candles and hand lotions, for instance. So we do have some persons doing it now.

“I’m not sure if they are aware that the C-SWA is there to help them with training and technology, and that is why it’s important to form this local chapter in the Bahamas and other areas of the Caribbean.

“We have more than sun, sand and sea. We have aloe, for instance, growing wild here, while all over the world they are using aloe and why don’t we use it here? We don’t have the knowledge and wherewithal to package it for sale to the world. That’s the strategy of the C-SWA, to get people educated and bring up the training standards.”

Caribbean nations such as the Bahamas could capitalise on the $40-$60 billion global health and wellness market, with the C-SWA leading the push by aiming to increase the sector’s visitor arrivals and revenues by as much as 10 per cent by 2015.

The C-SWA, supported by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export), recently launched its new website, marking the beginning of their plan make the Caribbean a leading spa destination by 2015. The proposed web portal will assist Caribbean Export and C-SWA in virtually promoting the region as a health and wellness destination.