Spa and wellness association mulls setting up an academy

Suffering from lack of ample manpower pool to serve the growing Spa and wellness industry in Cebu, the Spa and Wellness Association of Cebu (SWAC) is seriously considering establishing a Spa Academy in the province.

"A real Spa Academy is what the industry needs right now. It must be run by players and practitioners in order to assure specific skilled standard and training needed by the Spa and Wellness services," said SWAC president Johnie Lim.

However, before SWAC will seriously look for funding resources in this planned Spa Academy, Lim said the industry must first achieve a certain level of competence in order to have strong credibility for the creation of a school of Academy.

SWAC, which is a newly formed organization in Cebu, will do its best to propose this particular project to several international funding organizations or foreign government development programs, especially those geared in helping SMEs that generate employment.

Lim said SWAC will then ask its mother-organization, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) on how to go about this plan, and possibly gain support from international funding agencies.

"We are still a very young organization, we need the 'guiding hands' of CCCI to realize this plan," he added.

SWAC was established with the support of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) as a result of a grand-year event organized by the chamber called the Beauty, Health & Wellness Show 2005 (BHW 2005), which aimed at espousing community awareness and appreciate this wellness industry in Cebu.

The creation of the SWAC organization was pushed by the chamber, amid the province's bid to elevate the Spa industry's competency towards making Cebu as the Spa and Wellness capital in the country.

Prior to the creation of SWAC, industry players expressed several set backs such as lack of standardization, and updated regulations from concerned government agencies.

Aside from the long-term plan for establishing a Spa Academy, Lim said the organization is currently focusing on service standardization process, providing ways for operators to have license in Therapeutic Massage service.

According to Lim, the planned Spa Academy will be the organization's flagship project. Hopefully it will be realized in the next few years.

Other short-term project that the organization is trying to accomplish is the creation of a Spa and Wellness directory that will provide clear directions of Spa and Wellness outlets in Cebu for tourists.

Today, Lim said there is no specific Spa and Wellness directory that is pushed by the Department of Tourism (DOT). As soon as the SWAC members can get licenses for Therapeutic Massage, the creation of DOT-accredited Spa and Wellness directory will soon follow.

Based on Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-Cebu) record, there are about over a hundred Spa and Wellness Salons in Cebu. SWAC has only 30 members.