How Our Beach Walk Arrival Sets The Stage for Wellness - Nikheel Advani, Grace Bay Resorts

Nikheel: We have a wellness coach that comes down, and before we start anything, it's a long beach walk together. And I come back and I'm so relaxed, and I think, I mean, why didn't I just do that yesterday? Why did I wait for the wellness coach to come and walk with me? But you know, that's how we start. So I think all destinations are a little bit different, so you'll have to engineer that differently. But for Turks and Caicos, being the slogan, beautiful by nature, it's using nature and its therapeutic values of the sea, of long beach walks, that allow you to get into a zone in yourself where you are more relaxed, you are more open. And then you do yoga, or then you do tai chi because the environment is so cool. Or you just sit and watch the sun go down. And so there are so many things that I'm learning that we look at very differently, where I'd probably be sitting at a bar, having a cocktail, having a sundowner, and watching the sun go down. And I can do the same thing to relax and have yoga and take a long beach walk. And it's a whole different effect. So, yeah, I think we got a lot to invent and create and learn. And then some of these practitioners are coming down in thought leadership sessions. We're talking about that a little bit more.

Josiah: Tell me more about the beach walk. This stands out to me because sometimes when I go to a place and you're talking to someone about programming, maybe it's a desk off to the side or it seems that the way this is done maybe immerses you into the property, the environment, but it also shapes how you're thinking about the entire thing. So I think these specific details are fascinating to me. Is this sort of like early on in a guest stay? Correct.

Nikheel: So it's early on in your state, you want to have them do this. So again, it's programming that is suggestive. It's a, you know, with your family, try this is, you know, part of the wellness program that we're building, or thinking about where it becomes a part of the state. So when you go, you know, you get up in the morning, some people go to the gym, some people do yoga. We want to include a beach walk as part of this therapeutic to bond the family, to have conversations, which you know, a lot of families today, and I've seen that in many cities. I was at this amazing restaurant in Miami, and I see a family of four, and almost throughout the whole meal, they're all on a device. Well, we have to change that, you know, because they should not, they should be, they could be having some interesting conversations, but you know, this device is a disease at times. For example, at dinner tables, we put our devices away, but there are no devices. When we have family dinners, we encourage conversations, we laugh, and we get upset. That's okay. You know, my kids do something called a rosebud and thorn. And so what was your rose of the day or what was your bud? What are you looking forward to, and what was the thorn? I love that. When you do a beach walk, try rose, butter, and thorn, and you'll come back, and the family's communicated. You're starting your day before breakfast because other people like to get up and have a good breakfast. That's how we've engineered ourselves. Everybody loves a great breakfast. At Graceland Club and our resorts, we do some amazing breakfasts. what if we connect it first, and then breakfast becomes more of a conversation about what we discussed? Or there are some hard moments when we've got difficult conversations to have, but look at the beautiful place we're at. We're open, we're relaxed, we're not in a city, there's no traffic, and it's just gorgeous. Maybe it's a better environment for us to have difficult discussions as well. So I think including some of that wellness, and that's what we're having coaches advise us on today, could be something really exciting in the world of luxury hoteling, where wellness is part of your everyday lifestyle.