Spa Specialist Promises Lavish Luxury

Media Release from Sofitel Queenstown Hotel & Spa
July 30 2007

Spa Specialist Promises Lavish Luxury

A consummate spa professional with eighteen years’ experience in the wellbeing, fitness and health industry has been named manager of LeSpa at Sofitel, opening on August 4.

Vikki Aquino joins LeSpa after two years as the exclusive spa consultant responsible for launching five-star luxury spas for four other Sofitel hotels across the Asia-Pacific region.

Mark Wilkinson, General Manager of Sofitel Queenstown Hotel & Spa, said it was a coup to have someone with Vikki’s management and spa industry experience on board.

“LeSpa is Queenstown’s first international branded, five-star hotel spa. We’re offering guests and locals a wellbeing experience they’ve never had here before, so we needed an exceptional spa professional to deliver an exceptional spa service. With her strong track-record, Vikki is ideal for the role,” said Mr Wilkinson.

Vikki is a master’s candidate for Business Administration and has gained more than seventeen years’management experience in destinations including Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Manila and the USA.

“Establishing and running LeSpa at Sofitel in Queenstown is a fantastic opportunity for me,” said Ms Aquino.

“This is a unique spa brand and products I know intimately, but this time I’ll have the chance to oversee the daily delivery of lavish LeSpa luxury to guests and locals.

“Strategic development and marketing are two areas of any new business I particularly enjoy being involved with, so establishing LeSpa in Queenstown is a challenge I relish.”

As a former business development manager for a high profile pacific spa group, she also mentored seven managers and 67 wellbeing and spa specialists on board five six-star rated cruise vessels.

A former competitive professional tennis player for seven years, Vikki is also a trained fitness instructor and said she’s planning to make the very most of outdoor pursuits on offer in the region.

The eagerly-awaited luxury spa is a new spa concept created specifically for Sofitel Hotels & Resorts, drawing upon expertise which has been 25 years in the making by the Accor Group.

Housed in the multi-award-winning Sofitel building in the heart of the popular tourist resort, the million-dollar spa features a full range of signature treatments from a highly trained LeSpa team.

Drawing on French and local product suppliers, it will offer a world of lavishness for the face and body where radiance is synonymous with balance and well-being, all aimed at rejuvenating, regenerating and illuminating from within.

Renowned French products Carita and Decléor will combine with design elements of Central Otago’s greenery, mountains, glaciers, riverbeds and the richness of natural stones in the welcoming spaces and treatment rooms, to deliver a uniquely New Zealand sensory experience.

Featuring a traditional Hammam (steam and exfoliation room), use of which is offered free of charge with many treatments, LeSpa has three personal spa suites and two luxury spa suites for two, each with its own steam shower or spa bath. There is also a hand and foot luxury spa, a dedicated manicure and pedicure room, and a relaxation lounge.

LeSpa at Sofitel will be open 10am to 10pm daily, seven days a week. Locals or visitors keen for friends or family to enjoy the experience can purchase gift vouchers for any treatments.

ENDS

www.lespaqueenstown.co.nz

Sofitel: 200 premium hotels around the world

Because no one country or city is the same, Sofitel has made each of its 200 hotels around the world a truly unique establishment. Combining the spirit of each place with the values of modernity, refinement and absolute comfort, they are all imbued in their inimitable way with the French “art de vivre”.

Whether their setting is a great business metropolis like Paris, New York or Bangkok, or nestling in the landscape in Indonesia, Polynesia or Brazil, each Sofitel hotel offers travellers a genuine haven of peace. So that each guest, for an overnight stay or longer, during a business trip or for a holiday, can enjoy the rich variety of these unique places in comfort and tranquillity.

Accor, the European leader in hotels and tourism, and a global leader in corporate services, operates in nearly 100 countries with 166,000 employees. It offers to its individual and corporate clients 40 years of expertise in its two core businesses:
* Hotels, with the Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure, Suitehotel, Ibis, All Seasons, Etap Hotel, Formule 1 and Motel 6 brands: 3,800 hotels and 450,000 rooms in 90 countries, as well as strategically related activities, such as Lenôtre;
* Services to corporate clients and public institutions: 23 million people in 35 countries benefit from Accor Services products – meal and food vouchers, people care, incentive and loyalty programs.

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