The Ishana luxury and wellness spa which occupies a prime spot in the duty free area of New Delhi’s International Airport will soon be seen in other terminals as well, in the near future. The Spa Group, an Indian luxury and wellness group which works in the sectors of luxury retail, health and wellness, entertainment and education, will be expanding their store outlets according to Managing Director Amar K Agrawal.
Agrawal told TravelBiz Monitor “We consider Ishana as a perfect model to promote India ‘s tourism. We want to design our stores as the experience centres of India’s varied tourism offerings.” The Delhi Ishana store was established in 2011, and offers a wide variety of experiences to travelers filing in to the international departures terminal. The store includes a wellness spa, yoga and meditation sessions, astrology, a handicrafts and arts area, an ethnic café and live music. The store also features a healing pool for relaxation and short guided meditation sessions of the Isha Kriya meditation, to help travelers relax and attain some peace of mind between hectic transfers and flights.
The Spa Group has no plans to change this format and stated that they will replicate this format since it is working well with them. Agrawal confirmed that they are in discussions with the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India to create a tie up to promote India as a wellness and heritage destination. According to Agrawal, Ishana could do more for Indian tourism than “just painting a bus shelter in a destination with Incredible India motifs.”
“Being in the international airport, we had the opportunity to interact with citizens from different countries and understand their expectations,” he said. Agrawal stated that they are researching the possibility of establishing a store in New York airport seriously. This will be the first overseas Ishana outlet and could open as early as next year. He said that design and format aspects were being looked into.