Raffles Hotels & Resorts has launched a new concept for immersive well-being – Retreat by Raffles will be available in select locations across the luxury brand, and will debut at Raffles Singapore and Raffles Bali.
Personalised and co-created with wellness partners and practitioners, each Retreat by Raffles is characterised by a distinctive weave of elements: spa treatments and rituals for rejuvenation, wellness cuisine with a nutritional focus, cultural or community connection and mindful movement in nature. All itineraries will be coordinated alongside the guest’s personal well-being butler, available 24 hours a day.
Emlyn Brown, global vice president of well-being at Accor, said: “Our new Retreat by Raffles is a holistic concept which combines active well-being, self-empowerment and connection with nature.
“Through curated programmes, which balance serenity, harmony, relaxation, recovery and pleasure, our inaugural retreats at Raffles Bali and Raffles Singapore will further elevate these properties as havens for well-being.”
Retreat by Raffles at Raffles Bali will comprise chakra balancing, sound bowl therapy, meditation in the secret cave, yoga and reiki healing offered by community experts. Throughout the stay, guests can choose from a range of activities including cooking classes or the preparation of traditional herbal medicine, Jamu, and even a cultural exploration to a Balinese house and spa treatments at the resort.
Guests will indulge in healthy cuisine featuring sustainably farmed produce, with a dedicated menu that introduces exotic dishes from all over South-east Asia.
For Raffles Singapore, butlers will organise well-being activities for guests, such as a sound healing experience at The Intan, a private Peranakan home museum, sunrise yoga on the rooftop, and guided walks within the Singapore Botanic Gardens with a local nature expert.
Guests can also enjoy unlimited access to the hydrothermal facilities at Raffles Spa including a vitality pool filled with mineral-rich Peruvian Pink Salt, a Herbal Sauna Room scented with a range of calming aromas and an Aromatherapy Steam Room that releases pure salt vapour. For dining, there nine different dining establishments at the hotel to choose from, where those with particular nutritional goals can have menus curated by the culinary team on request.
In addition, both hotels will offer in-room wellness amenities for guests to aid restful sleep, such as essential oil blends, diffusers, a well-being and mindfulness journal, mood audio and a crystal eye mask.
Retreat by Raffles will soon be introduced at other Raffles properties across the globe and further announcements will be made in the near future.
His new responsibilities will include the continuation of day-to-day responsibility for planning, implementing, managing, and controlling all financial-related activities of the company, in conjunction with directing and overseeing all aspects of Finance, Group Accounting, Purchasing, Legal and Compliance functions of the organisation.
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Location
Iriomote island in Okinawa, Japan is imposing a cap on visitors in a bid to prevent overtourism as travel returns.
Starting from this month, only 1,200 visitors are permitted to enter the island daily, equating to 33,000 annually. The local government is concerned that a rebound of tourism to pre-pandemic levels would endanger the habit of its rare and indigenous Iriomote cat.
The subtropical destination is Okinawa’s second-largest island but its population of 2,400 is concentrated around its northern and eastern shores as much of the island is covered in subtropical forest.
Its popularity was on the rise pre-pandemic, with 290,000 visitors in 2019. However, the past decade of tourism growth brought a rise in traffic accidents involving Iriomote cats.
In 2020, when the island closed to tourists, no Iriomote cats were killed on the road.
As tourists returned to the island over 2021 to 2022, eight cats were killed and several more injured, according to local government data.
Since Iriomote became part of Japan’s newest UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site (covering Amami-Oshima, Tokunoshima, northern mainland Okinawa and Iriomote) in July 2021, support has been growing to protect the habit of the islands’ rare endemic species, including the Amami rabbit and Iriomote cat.
The cat is classified as “critically endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and is designated a natural monument by the Okinawa government. An estimated 100 adult cats inhabited the island as of 2007, predominantly in its subtropical forests, making Iriomote the smallest habitat of any wild cat species in the world.
The visitor cap is designed to “minimise the effects caused by tourists on nature and the local community,” according to the Okinawan department of environment affairs, which noted that the number of island sites open to guided tours will also be limited.
Although the restrictions are not compulsory, the Okinawan government is urging travel agents to comply with them.