Travel outlook remains poor for next few months; wellness sector set to revive prominently: Nikhil Kapur, Atmantan Wellness

Amidst the COVID-10 second wave, a meaningful push for India’s travel and hospitality industry has been largely missing. People are cautious about stepping out of their homes even to buy basic necessities. With the travel and hospitality segment witnessing yet another blow due to the second wave, luxury hotels and wellness centres have been taking numerous steps to safeguard their staff and guests during the second wave of the pandemic.

According to Nikhil Kapur, Founder and Director, Atmantan Wellness Centre, “This time around, the sentiment has weakened a lot as the majority of the people have seen severe illness/death from close quarters. Hence, the outlook is poor in the next 1-3 months. After a critical mass has been vaccinated, I see a big pick up in travel. Incidentally, once vaccination is done in other countries too, international travel should pick as early as Oct/Nov 21.”

In his view, travel is likely to pick up when people start travelling for improving their health/treatment of ailments to wellness centres like Atmantan and Nature experiences to offbeat locations.

Notably, Atmantan is a GOLD LEED certified project.

“I expect people to travel and choose their travel destination more mindfully going forward. The hospitality sector will take a while to revive but I expect the wellness sector to revive more prominently. One of the biggest changes expected is the exponential growth of the digital services and it will be interesting to see how the travel and hospitality industries bring this in, “ Nikhil Kapur tells Financial Express Online.

In this exclusive interaction with Financial Express Online, Nikhil Kapur delves deep into how a residential centre like Atmantan has teamed up with passionate and skilled individuals to deliver a transformative experience and how they use some advanced diagnostics machines to review improvement in health parameters or performance.

Notably, he highlights their recently launched tele-medicine platform – Atmantan Naturals which offers a complete health solution as it incorporates digital therapeutics too.

What is the guiding vision that has led to ‘Atmantan’?

The vision was to create a place where people can get well, while not feeling ostracised or depressed… a place where they would in fact be applauded and encouraged for taking this step towards self-wellness.We felt a place like that didn’t exist; a place one that offers true result-oriented wellness in a natural well-replenished haven. We wanted to create a place for deep transformations of the atma (soul), mana (mind) and tann (body).

‘Atmantan’ in its name and offering is the holistic amalgamation of the atma, mana and tann.

After the lockdown restrictions had eased last year, what measures were taken at ‘Atmantan’ to ensure the complete safety and well being of its staff and guests?

Atmantan is a NABH accredited Wellness Centre and hence our protocols ensure the highest quality of health programs, safety & hygiene for staff and guests. Each individual has a role to play to keep the environment safe.

Keeping this in mind, we implemented a SAFE FOR YOU campaign, which was focussed around:

(1) Guest & (2) Team

We enhanced all our service protocols.

Some measures taken are:

1) All our guests have to do a mandatory RT PCR test prior to arrival (sample swab should be taken within 48 hours prior to arrival time). Guests are advised not to socialise once the sample has been taken.

2) On arrival, we conduct a doctor’s screening for any visible symptoms or concerns.

3) Close to 150 of our team members stay on the premises. This includes senior & middle mgmt. & junior team members too. This ensures that very few people are coming from nearby areas.

4) The staff does Jal Neti twice a week and has been through a dose of homeopathic medicines to improve their immunity. All members of the team will complete their vaccination by Mid July.

5) All public areas are being cleaned more often.

6) We use advanced UV light in all rooms and public areas as this kills any surface bacteria. This 15-second treatment is done before check in. And every night this treatment is done in all public areas.

7) Training of our team members to increase their sensitivity to the risk and how to mitigate the same.

All these above measures make Atmantan a ‘Safety Bubble’!

What does ‘wellness’ encapsulate in your vision for your guests and how does it reflect in your services that are now on offer?

We are a wellness pit stop. Like in Formula racing, the car always comes in for a pitstop where it is checked or serviced; Atmantan is exactly such a place, where guests keep coming in regularly back to their trusted team and they continue improving upon their health parameters.

We provide our guests with transformative and educative experiences upon their doctor consults, where in them under diagnostics, prescribed nutrition, fitness regimes and all this is done in a personalised manner with incredible social support from our team.

Tell us more about the green initiatives that have been rolled out and why it is an integral part of your vision for the future?

My wife Sharmilee Agrawal Kapur and I were very focussed on developing a world-class property without degrading the natural environment. Hence, very early on during the planning stage itself, we conducted a weather study and also appointed a LEED consultant to explore sustainable architecture and energy systems. As young entrepreneurs, there is no other way… if it has to be done… it has to be green.

Our path breaking measures include:

40,000K LPD solar heating plant for which we imported thermal insulated pipes from Holland. These special pipes ensure that there is a minimum drop of temperature over long distances.

300KLD STP plant that uses 1/3rd the electrical consumption of conventional plants and also uses no chemicals for treatment of waste.

This water is recycled for our garden and organic farm

Tell us about the location of your resort and what type of travellers it is ideal for.

Atmantan sits atop a crystal hill, overlooking the blue Mulshi lake. The land lends us healing frequencies and enhances our wellness offering. Tucked in Nature’s abode, Atmantan is away from the hustle and bustle of the city, while also being fabulously connected by road and air in the outskirts of Pune city.

Our guests are always well educated and evolved to the point that they value their health as the most important possession and choose to come to us to improve and enhance it.

This place is ideal for people seeking disease management and reversal, relief from chronic ailments and injuries, people suffering from auto-immune conditions, those who want to, recover through the ancient science of Ayurveda (Kairali), detox, longevity and anyone looking for holistic wellness.