Sunai Wachirawarakarn launched his own spa brand last year with the intention of becoming one of the first local brands recognised on a global scale.
Now the 36-year-old's dream is one step closer to reality as arom:D or 'good mood' in Thai, is in the process of setting up a joint venture in the Middle East.
The managing director of Spanovator, a one-stop wellness business and consultancy, worked in the spa industry for six years before becoming a freelance consultant and setting up the company two years ago, where most of his work was based on rebranding existing spas.
"The word 'spanovator' came from spa innovative creator, which means that each place is unique in its own way and has different concepts," said Mr Sunai, who holds a master's degree in business administration from Prince of Songkhla University.
Mr Sunai was a former general manager of Sukko Spa, which created a cultural spa concept by combining Thai heritage with traditional Thai medicinal philosophy.
Spanovator's customers include businesses that have problems, those that want to develop their spas and people who want to start a business. Clients include day and luxury spas, spas in hotels, home spas and spas based on halal concepts or anahata spas (holistic wellness retreats).
Anahata spas led Spanovator to integrate the Oriental wisdom of Ayurveda, the concept of the seven wheels of well-being, traditional Thai medicine and herbal treatments with aromatherapy to ensure holistic management of all body systems in a modern setting. In line with its aim for the brand to be exported, the company is in talks about a joint venture with investors in the UAE, which will likely be finalised this year.
"Demand in the Middle East is very high because the economy is growing, with many hotels opening and fewer competitors than Thailand, where the market has almost reached its peak," said Mr Sunai.
China is also on the radar due to its high purchasing power.
Next year he will be focus on branding arom:D as a franchise. By the end of this year, Mr Sunai plans to open a spa academy to educate people from around the world. He added arom:D is the world's first academic spa. It has 10 therapists and a training manager.
"In the past spas focused on relaxation and medical issues, but now I think customers need to learn how to take care of themselves and not just get a massage and go home," he said.
Spas will include a library for customers to read books after doing a treatment and will have a room to practice massages. There are also workshops on various topics such as spa management and Thai massage, said Mr Sunai, who also earned a degree in management from Abac University.
"This concept was created in order to compete with the opening of the Asean Economic Community (AEC). Thai massage therapists have unique talents but are unskilled in languages and knowledge of anatomy and physiology terms," he said.
Services include crystal emotional therapy that uses colours to identify a customer's feelings. Green, for instance, resembles love, requiring an organic rose-balancing massage, while light blue represents cool, with an aqua massage consisting of sea-water products.
Dark blue represents dreaming and is a bestseller among the options sold to a hotel in Hong Kong.
Another interesting service is office syndrome therapy, where workshops will be conducted at the customer's offices.
"Office syndrome is an illness that affects workers, and there is an opportunity here since we are located in the Silom area. Sitting in a fixed position making small repetitive movements for eight hours a day or more can cause muscle fatigue, discomfort and aches and pains in the arms, neck, wrists, eye sockets, back and some other muscles," said Mr Sunai.
He is also the standard and practice committee chair at the Thai Spa Association (TSPA), and Mr Sunai noted it is important for Thai spas to adhere to Asean spa standards once the AEC begins in order for Thailand to become the spa hub of the region.
Thailand's competitors include Indonesia and Malaysia, while Vietnam is coming on in this field. Therapists in the Philippines are famous as they have an advantage in English.
The International Trade Promotion Department forecasts exports of about US$3 billion in beauty products and cosmetics in 2012, up 20% from last year. The top five export markets are Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia.
Despite growth in exports of spa products, Thailand is still at a disadvantage relative to China and South Korea as import duties on raw materials and goods for packaging products are high.
In 2008, the last year for which figures were available, the spa industry brought in 4.875 billion baht in revenue. Of more than 4 million people, 80% of them were foreigners, visited spas and massage parlours.
Therapeutic massage parlours make up 64.4% of the spa industry, health spas 31.6% and beauty massage parlours 4%. Most of these services are located in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Surat Thani, Krabi, Phuket and Phangnga.
Spa businesses in Thailand also include spa consultants and private schools that are officially certified to train professional massage therapists.
