Global Spa Summit"s 2011 Student Challenge Winners Announced

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 06, 2011

The Global Spa Summit (GSS), the premier event for the spa and wellness industries, formally announced the winners of its third annual Student Challenge competition today. This year the challenge was to create a spa business concept that is not only innovative and aesthetically pleasing, but completely feasible and structured for profitability.

With the Summit traveling to Asia for the first time, four leading universities from across the region were selected to compete. Student teams from business or hospitality management programs developed the conceptual and financial details of their spa project and collaborated with an assigned professional architect to help realize their designs. Then, on May 17-18 at the Summit in Bali, Indonesia, the student team that had won their individual universitys competition presented their concept before a distinguished panel of judges and the Summit delegation, competing for cash prizes and global industry recognition.

The VIP judging panel was comprised of Sharilyn Abbajay (VP, Global Spa and Retail, Marriott International, U.S.), Filip Boyen (COO, Orient Express, U.K.), Christopher Norton (Chair, Global Spa Task Force, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, France), Niamh OConnell (VP, Spa Operations, Hyatt Hotels, U.S.) and Krip Rojanastien, (Owner, ChivaSom, Thailand). The 2011 Student Challenge coordinators were GSS Board Members Sue Harmsworth (CEO & Founder, ESPA International) and Mary Tabacchi (PhD, Professor, Cornell University of Hotel Administration).

Each competing project this year was executed at such an extraordinarily high level, combining real creativity with detailed business plans and financial analyses, noted Mary Tabacchi. The judges deliberated long and hard, praising every project, and the competition has never been so close.

2011 Student Challenge Winners:

The student presentations/project images are available at: http://www.globalspasummit.org/index.php/summit-2011

1st Place: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Hotel and Tourism Management. ($ 1000USD prize)

Student team: Tommy Gu, Kitsun Lau, Joyce Ng and Carol Zhang

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Ada Lo and Dr. Xiao Qu

Partner Architect: J Lee Rofkind of Hong Kong-based BUZ Design Consultants

Spa Concept: Yi Spa

Yi Spa represents an entirely new spa franchise business model (a hot topic at the 2011 Summit), targeting stressed-out, time-crunched urban spa-goers. Its comprised of two components: a fixed-locale day spa and Yi Spa on the Go, a mobile spa van that travels to central business districts on weekdays and to beaches, parks, etc. on weekends/holidays. Modularity, adaptability and mobility are Yi Spas hallmarks and guarantors of profitability. For instance, the day spa features movable cubicles, where the lightweight, soundproof, bamboo-covered walls are easily expanded into spa suites or retracted to provide more treatment rooms – and the spa is easily dismantled and reconstructed if a change of locale is needed.

2nd place: The Chinese University of Hong Kong ($ 500USD prize) Partner Architect: Angelene Chan, Director, Singapore-based DP Architects

Spa Concept: SPArmony

SPArmony marries ancient Traditional Chinese Medicine with a strategically positioned, modern, 4-star hotel spa concept. Important components of the concept: design that brings the outside in (utilizing natural materials like bamboo) and diverse strategies (such as yield management) to reduce spa operations, design, human resources and marketing costs.

3rd place (Tie): Gadjah Mada University (Indonesia) ($ 250USD prize) Partner Architect: Jeffrey Wilkes, Design Wilkes, Malaysia

Spa Concept: Spice of Life Spa

Every aspect of the Spice of Life spa concept reflects Indonesias indigenous culture and its heritage as the Spice Islands: from the menu featuring treatments/products from across the Indonesian archipelago to the integrated tropical-Balinese architecture to the local hiring policies.

3rd place (Tie): Cornell Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management (Singapore) ($ 250USD prize) Partner Designer: Chris Singer, WATG, Singapore

Spa Concept: th

Global Spa Summit"s 2011 Student Challenge Winners Announced