The statistics tell us that Britain is getting fatter, but they also tell us that there's a growing trend for healthier holidays. Yoga retreats and fitness breaks are a small but expanding part of the tourism industry. Spa breaks, however, are a real growth area, with almost every hotel group and high-end hotelier adding spas to their properties.

But one country has taken the spa trend a step further. Switzerland is a country known for its active population. With a plethora of mountains, lakes and open countryside, there's no excuse for Switzerland's people to sit around. And now it's trying to spread its health obsession a little further afield.

Switzerland Tourism has been marketing "wellness breaks" for the past year or so. The Swiss countryside and hospitality, it says, make Switzerland a great place to relax and recuperate.

The Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken is one of the country's leading centres of health, beauty and well-being. The hotel has 5,500sq m of spa facilities, including a Clarins beauty centre, a hair salon, a swimming pool, a gym, two tennis courts, an in-house physiotherapist and a new ESPA spa centre.

The Victoria-Jungfrau's ESPA centre is the first in Switzerland for spa guru Susan Harmsworth's company, ESPA International, but it won't be the last. Emanuel Berger, managing director of the hotel, lets slip that he is in talks with Harmsworth to add an ESPA to the Victoria-Jungfrau's sister hotel in Luzern, the Palace Luzern, and that he hopes to start work on the new facility in November.

The £8m Victoria-Jungfrau ESPA opened in December 2003 and features 16 treatment rooms, 14 of which have outdoor sun terraces, a self-contained private spa for two with its own private changing area, two-person steam shower and deep-water couples bath, and, for dedicated spa aficionados, 10 spa bedrooms constructed above the ESPA with direct access to the facilities.

"Victoria-Jungfrau has long been associated with health and wellbeing," says Berger. "Our original health club and spa attracts guests from all over the world."

He adds: "Wellness has always been an important part of our business and with the introduction of this additional facility we are set to establish ourselves as the leading centre nationwide for health, beauty and wellbeing."

Berger says the hotel decided to add the ESPA to its existing facilities because it wanted to have a little less dependence on the weather. Interlaken is bustling with tourists in the ski season and in summer, but in between times can be very quiet.

"When the weather is good, it's a paradise and it's unlimited what you can do here," Berger says. He adds that, unlike many resorts, Interlaken is known for many different activities, and that he wanted to add the ESPA to that long list.

Berger says it is also important that guests can eat healthily, alongside being pampered and rejuvenated with treatments at the ESPA and the Victoria-Jungfrau's other beauty facilities. It's a well-known fact that whenever any of us go on holiday our diet suffers. Trips away from home are always an opportunity to treat ourselves to something a little bit naughty but nice. Our taste-buds may love it, but our waistlines are bound to suffer.

Berger has the solution. He says healthy food at the Victoria-Jungfrau is very important. The hotel has three main restaurants, which offer a variety of food from gourmet French cuisine to Italian pastas and traditional Swiss fare, but it also offers a special spa menu. Food from the spa menu can be ordered in any of the hotel's restaurants. "The spa cuisine is not kept separate," Berger says, "but it is prepared separately." He adds that whereas the hotel's regular meals will be improved with cream and butter, the spa cuisine is kept as low calorie as possible.

Berger, who has been managing the Victoria-Jungfrau for more than 20 years, says when the original spa and fitness centre was opened at the hotel, in 1991, he thought having an opportunity to be active at the hotel was a key selling point. Now he says he has learned that pampering and healthy living is an important part of people's holidays, which led to the loss of two of the hotel's tennis courts and introduction of the ESPA.

And Berger is glad that transformation has taken place. Not only has he been able to add a further 10 bedrooms to the hotel's total stock of 222, but he has also opened the hotel up to a more discerning level of customer, the customer who knows that a spa is more than a Jacuzzi and a couple of massage rooms.


Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Hotel & Spa
The Victoria-Jungfrau started life as two separate hotels. Businessman Edouard Ruchti bought the Pension Victoria in 1856 and eight years later commissioned architects Friedrich Stider and Edouard Davinet to design and construct a hotel in its place. Nine months later, work on the new Hotel Victoria was complete and it opened to the public in 1865.

Four years later the Hotel Jungfrau, also designed by Davinet, was built on the site next door. Ruchti bought the Jungfrau in 1895 and formed the Victoria-Jungfrau company. In 1899 the two hotels were joined by a dome-topped tract.

Emanuel Berger and his wife Rosmarie took over management of the Victoria-Jungfrau in 1970. They managed the two properties as "separate but joined" hotels for more than 20 years, until, in 1992, the road between the two buildings was transformed to become the hotel's reception and lobby area, fully melding the two hotels together.

The ESPA
The ESPA is built on two of the Victoria-Jungfrau's indoor tennis courts (two still remain) and was designed by local architects Behles and Partner. ESPA helped recruit and has trained all staff at the spa and operates the facility on a management contract.

The philosophy behind the ESPA is a holistic approach to health and wellbeing. Treatments combine ancient and modern Western and Oriental healing techniques designed to relieve stress, anxiety and fatigue while promoting equilibrium and inner harmony. The treatment range includes facials, body wraps, massage, hot stone therapies, reflexology, hydrotherapy and ayurveda. Most treatments start with a welcoming foot cleansing ceremony (padabhyanga), which is designed to alleviate stress and tension.

The spa, aside from its private spa, is split into his and hers areas each with their own changing rooms, steam rooms, saunas and relaxation areas.

Guests wanting to use the private spa pay Sfr1,300 (£590) per half day, which includes three hours of treatment time with a personal therapist and one hour's relaxation time.

Interior design-wise, the ESPA combines black mosaics with warm honey tones and natural woods and stone. All the treatment rooms feature coloured lighting and floor-to-ceiling windows.