Jumeirah - March-April 2020

THE WELLNESS ISSUE March - April 2020

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Editor-in-Chief Obaid Humaid Al Tayer Managing Partner & Group Editor lan Fairservice Senior Art Director Olga Petroff Contributing Editor Conor Purcell Art Director Clarkwin Cruz Senior Editorial Assistant Cecilia D’Souza General Manager – Production S Sunil Kumar Assistant Production Manager Binu Purandaran Production Supervisor Venita Pinto Chief Commercial Officer Anthony Milne Publishing Director Carlos Pedroza Group Sales Manager Bindu Gupta Senior Sales Manager Neha Kannoth For Jumeirah Miet Saelens

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Head Office Media One Tower, Dubai Media City, PO Box 2331, Dubai UAE, Tel: +971 4 427 3000, motivate@motivate.ae Dubai Media City Office 508, 5th Floor, Building 8, Dubai, UAE, Tel: +971 4 390 3550, Fax: +971 4 390 4845.

Abu Dhabi PO Box 43072, UAE, Tel: +971 2 657 3490, Fax: +971 2 657 3489, editor-wo@motivate.ae London Acre House, 11/15 William Road, London NW1 3ER, UK, motivateuk@motivate.ae

Jumeirah International LLC its affiliates, parent companies and subsidiaries (“Jumeirah Group”) and the publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for errors or omissions contained in this publication for whatever reason, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of Jumeirah Group or of the publishers. Readers are advised to solicit advice before acting on the information contained in this publication which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the readers’ particular circumstances. Jumeirah Group and the publishers take no responsibilty for the goods and services advertised. All materials are protected by copyright. All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (Including photocopying or storage in any medium by electronic means) without the written permission of the copyright owner, except as may be permitted by applicable laws.

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March - April 2020

CONTENTS

The Edit We explore the must-see events across Jumeirah cities (page 10); Objects of desire that look as good as they make you feel (page 13); We profile a conservationist who changed the way we see apes and ourselves (page 14); We spend 12 hours in Jumeirah Beach Hotel and its locality, one of Dubai’s most exciting areas (page 16); How a healthy daily dose of optimism can fundamentally enhance our lives (page 20); We examine how a simple bottle of H20 has become so popular (page 24); How has this new generation of wellness technology taken over our lives? (page 28); From the way we travel to the things we consume, how is the Transformational Economy changing the way we live? (page 34); How is the growing awareness around climate change and conservationism changing the way we travel? (page 40); Here's how to make time for your exercise routine (page 46); Steel timepieces that have our full attention (page 50).

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Index We visit Capri Palace Jumeirah (page 56); We profile the new range of 111SKIN products now available at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel (page 62); The Leg School mixes cutting-edge techniques with signature hospitality (page 68); We examine the beauty of Capri, an island steeped in history (page 70); Serene surroundings: Grosvenor House Suites by Jumeirah Living (page 74).

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A Mediterranean Pearl The luxurious Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa resort is designed to cater to the needs of every kind of traveller Picking a holiday destination often in­ volves making an impossible choice bet­ ween heading to the mountains or un­ winding by the coast. Fortunately, the idyllic island of Mallorca in Spain resolves that conundrum as it offers both a slice of pristine pieces of the Mediterranean coast and also the stunning sheer­sided Serra de Tramuntana mountain range listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO located on the island itself.

Situated only a 35­minute drive away from the Palma de Mallorca Inter­ national airport, one of Spain’s busiest international airports, is the Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa – a luxurious resort that features 121 rooms and 40 suites allowing you to choose between sea and mountain views.

If you’re set to enjoy the most luxu­ rious residential experience that the re­ sort can offer you, you’d do well to select between the 110­square­meter split­level Lighthouse Suite that features a large ter­

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race and views of the Port Soller Bay, or the 157­square­meter one­bedroom Observa­ tory Suite which also has access to a Ju­ nior Suite and a Deluxe Room, or even the sea­facing 185­square­meter stand­alone Mar Blau Suite house featuring a double bedroom, private terrace, open kitchen and maid’s room with the entire structure surrounded by pine and olive trees.

There’s plenty to enjoy for those who prefer to spend a greater part of their day within the resort. Rejuvenate within the property’s Talise Spa, awarded the Best Luxury Hotel Spa in Spain for four years in a row, which includes a Hammam Suite and an outdoor hydropool overlooking the mountain range.

The property also features three res­ taurants offering local and international gastronomy with the highest quality pro­ duce sourced locally from the island itself and you can even set up a private al fresco dinner on the property’s Tramuntana Ter­ race. To burn a few of those calories, the

resort’s infinity pool offers a perfect spot to observe a blissful sunset view too.

For the intrepid adventurers, there’s plenty to do around the resort including booking a solo or guided Harley­David­ son biking tour of the island covering the historic settlement of Valldemossa, or signing up for a Hike & Wine tour of the island to increase your knowledge of the island and its wines, or even opting for a helicopter or private boat tour of the main islands of the Cabrera archipelago.

Eventually, your day will end back at the luxurious Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa resort that is guaranteed to recharge and relax you in equal parts, preparing you to take on a new day at one of Europe’s most spectacular travel destinations.

Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa, Carrer de Belgica, 07108 Port de Sóller, Illes Balears, Spain. Open from March 23rd-November 1st. Tel: +34 971 63 78 88

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Abu Dhabi Music Week Dance music fans rejoice, for a new electronic music festival is about to drop, and the line-up looks amazing.

With everyone from Afrojack, Eric Prydz, Nicky Romero, and Major

Vault Festival

Stormzy in Shanghai

London’s biggest annual arts festival returns for its eight year. Expect lots of comedy, experimental theatre, spoken word, fringe theatre and a whole host of experimental creativity. The events are spread out across 18 venues in Waterloo and the South Bank and admission prices start from under a tenner. For a window into London’s vibrant alternative theatre scene, this is a must.

Various venues, Waterloo, South Bank Runs until March 22nd vaultfestival.com

One of the brightest lights on the UK hip hop scene, Stormzy is a Glastonbury headliner who has dominated the grime scene for the past five years. His live shows are incendiary, so anyone who makes it to this will be in for a treat.

Arkham, 168 Julu Road, Shanghai. March 27th

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We're Feeling Cultural highlights from Jumeirah cities

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Lazer performing, as well as the DJ Mag industry conference taking place in the city. There’s nowhere better than the UAE capital for electronic music fans this spring.

Du Arena, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi March 1-14th

Spring Dippemess One of the highlights of spring in Frankfurt, this traditional folk fair is a draw for the entire family. From the Frankfurter Sausage Festival to a huge arts and crafts market (featuring work from local artisans) to hightech fairground rides and a huge number of food stalls, this is one family day out not to be missed.

Festplatz am Ratsweg, Ratsweg Frankfurt March 26th-April 18th

Middle East Film & Comic Con One of the year’s highlights, Middle East Film & Comic Con has established itself as the comic book aficionados’ event of choice, with thousands of fans – many dressed as their favourite superheroes – descending on the World Trade Centre. There will be lots of talks, performances, workshops, signings and meet and greets; so, if you want to unleash your inner geek, you know what to do.

Dubai World Trade Centre, Dubai. March 4-6th

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Bahrain Spring of Culture Festival In December, Manama was named the Capital of Arab Tourism 2020. In line with its reputation of offering diverse cultural experiences, the Spring of Culture Festival began in February and will continue until the end of April. The festival will include art exhibitions, music concerts and lectures spread across Manama. Some of the biggest events to watch out for include a contemporary performance called Hadid Tears, directed by Walid Aouni and featuring the Egyptian Modern Dance Theatre and Cairo Opera House on February 25th.

Meanwhile, Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill will perform a few days later on February 28th at Bahrain Bay. There are several other stellar performances lined up including those from The Merchants of Bollywood, a musical performance of Romeo & Juliet and also a riveting Aladdin show slated for early April.

Manama. Until April 30th.

We're Feeling Cultural highlights from Jumeirah cities

37th Palma International Boat Show One of Europe’s leading boat shows, the annual event draws over 45,000 people. There are expected to be over 600 boats on display, including half of which fall within the category of a superyacht – yachts that are 24 metres or longer. While the event is the perfect opportunity for those from within the trade to exhibit their craftsmanship capabilities,

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the festival also offers seminars and activities for boating enthusiasts in attendance. And for the wellheeled, there are yacht brokers and chartering companies present who

will be willing to offer attendees a chance to charter or own their very own yacht.

Moll Vell, Palma, Mallorca. April 29th – May 3rd

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Objects of Desire

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: The Muse 2 meditation headset; The Aoiro Hakudo fragrance set; The Airthings Wave Plus; Van Nahmen’s rhubarb juice

Chic Living Has clean air ever looked so good? The Airthings Wave Plus ($200) monitors your air for radon gas and excess amounts of C02, via an app. Its sleek design means it won’t draw attention to itself while making sure your air is as clean as can be.

If you want your home to smell amazing, the Japanese company Aoiro create bespoke fragrances for opera houses, Cartier boutiques and Mandarin Oriental hotels. Heavily influenced

by Japan’s abundant nature (lots of woods, lots of citrus fruits), its bespoke fragrances can cost upwards of $15,000, while its off-the-shelf products start at a very reasonable $45.

These days meditation is as beloved of CEOs as of yogis, so it’s no surprise to see technology racing to ca-

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ter for those who want inner peace on their own time. The Muse 2 meditation headset ($220) comes with EEG sensors, an accelerometer and a gyroscope as well as a heart rate monitor. While a device such as this could be written off as a gimmick, we are all for attaining peace of mind, no matter how silly we look while doing it.

While detox juices have traditionally sacrificed taste for health, a new generation of companies are creating juices, nectars and ciders that taste as good as they make you feel. Van Nahmen’s range of drinks (from $6), feature both organic and single variety apple, grape, bilberry, plum and cherry drinks.

We love the classic packaging, while the taste means you don’t feel you are missing out by going for the healthy option.

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Icon

Jane Goodall Has there ever been a conservationist more famous – or more inspiring – than Jane Goodall? The Londonborn primatologist has been the subject of more than 40 films and documentaries, and has seeped into the public consciousness in a way few others have before her. So why has she had such an effect?

Her discoveries in the Gombe Stream National Park in 1960 were indeed seminal. She observed a chimp eating the carcass of a small animal, proof that the existing belief that apes didn’t eat meat was untrue.

Later she saw that same chimp – she named him David Greybeard – sitting by a termite mound. He picked up a blade of grass and pushed it into the termite mound, withdrew it covered in termites and ate them. He then picked a twig from a tree, removed its leaves and used it to catch termites.

It was, at the time, an astonishing revelation: apes could use and make tools, something which at the time it was thought only humans could do.

The discovery not only changed the way we thought of apes, but how we thought of ourselves. The following year Jane entered Cambridge University as a PHD student, one of the first people to be admitted without a college degree. Despite her successes in the field, she was often underestimated as nothing more than a secretary with no scientific training at all.

At this stage Goodall’s research was being funded by National Geographic who wanted photographs of Jane and the apes. Although initially reluctant to bring a photographer with

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her, she eventually agreed and the photographer, Hugo van Lawick, would eventually become her husband.

Goodall was always reluctant to have the spotlight turned on her and rejected the notion of celebrity that came with her work. She did however finally accept the fact that the spotlight was on her and, as she told an interviewer many years later, she could use that fame to help the apes she was documenting. “Well, at some point I realised that if people were going to think this way, then they would listen to me, which is true. And this would help to conserve chimps and do all the other things I need to do.”

Indeed, her life’s work was all about protecting and ‘humanising’ the apes she lived with. She gave them all names and her love for these animals was apparent in a lecture she gave in 1963. “David Greybeard … has put his complete trust in man,” she said. “Shall we fail him? Surely it’s up to us to do something to ensure that at least some of these fantastic, almost human creatures continue to live undisturbed in their natural habitat.” Goodall’s legacy is an enduring one. She not only discovered that chimps could make and use tools, but that they hugged and kissed each other and shared far more characteristics with humans then we had previously thought. Now 85, her environmental programme, Roots & Shoots is still protecting African habitats and the chimps that live in them to this day. Maybe more importantly, she has shown that one woman can make a huge difference, both in how we treat apes and how we see ourselves.

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24 HOURS IN DUBAI The Jumeirah neighbourhood is filled with cultural, culinary and retail highlights Jumeirah Beach Hotel is one of the most iconic hotels in the city with its wave-shaped façade a familiar sight along Dubai’s coastline. And after a recent refurb, the hotel looks better than ever, featuring cutting-

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edge design, state-of-the-art technology and some of the city’s best culinary options. Add spectacular views of Burj Al Arab Jumeriah and the Arabian Gulf, and you have the perfect holiday getaway.

Words − Conor Purcell

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10am: Kids’ Club

12pm: Talise Spa

First things first: bring the little ones to Jumeirah Beach Hotel’s amazing KiDS Club. Inspired by the underwater world (check out the giant octopus), this joyous space has a huge amount to offer kids between the ages of two and ten.

From face painting to a variety of crafts and a range of sporting acti­ vities, you can relax, safe in the knowledge that your kids are being well taken care of. From water­based activities to children’s movies, let them explore the aquatic­themed space at their leisure, while you en­ joy the rest of the hotel. Now that’s what we call a real holiday.

There are few better places to kick back and relax than the Talise Spa. With stunning views overlooking Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, the spa is dedicated to delivering genuine results through specialised treatments for the face and body. We recommend the Jumeirah Revitalising Massage to start, which is a 60­minute treatment featuring a full body, deep tissue massage, with ancient therapeutic techniques, deep flowing movements, acupressure point stimulation and light stretching to leave you completely rejuvenated.

There’s also a range of healing facials, hammam experiences, cryo­therapies and muscle massages on offer. Bliss.

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04 3pm: Kite Beach A short walk down the coast from the Jumeirah Beach Hotel is Kite Beach, which is one of Dubai’s most popular stretches of sand. With everything from kitesurfing classes and trampolines to a kids' water park and jet ski hire, you (and the kids) will never be bored. There’s also a range of food and drink outlets (everything from gelato and bubble tea to sushi and coffee) should you require some mid-afternoon sustenance.

03 1pm: Beachcombers Jumeirah Beach Hotel is filled with world-class dining experiences, and there’s no better place for a leisurely lunch than Beachcombers. This laidback beachfront escape features a huge menu filled with a range of specially prepared pan-Asian cuisine.

We recommend the Malaysian Prawn Curry Laksa or the Soto Ayam, a Japanese-style chicken soup. If you want something a bit lighter, the Larb Gai, a spicy minced chicken salad is a big favourite, as is the Wasabi Mayo Prawn and Mango Salad. For dessert, try the Pisang Goreng, which features banana fritter and honeycomb vanilla ice cream. Yum.

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5pm: Al Serkal Avenue Only a short drive from the hotel, Al Serkal Avenue is one of the Middle East’s most vibrant cultural areas.

Filled with galleries, pop-up eateries,

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design shops and a theatre, it’s one of the most interesting areas of the city. Expect lots of low-slung spaces, in keeping with the warehouses that dominate the area, as well as exhibitions, events and seminars. Check out the spectacular installations at Carbon 12, or the beautiful photography at Lawrie Shabibi and The Third Line. Al Serkal Avenue proves Dubai is a culturally-advanced city with a thriving art scene.

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06 7pm: Villa Beach By now you will surely have worked up an appetite, so head to Villa Beach, an intimate Italian eatery with beautiful views of Burj Al Arab Jumeirah.

The menu is filled with classic Italian dishes such as Spaghetti alla Busarra, Rigatoni Funghi Asparagi and Risotto al Frutti Di Mare. Of course, if you prefer some freshly caught fish, we have you covered: there’s locallysourced sea bass, salmon and tuna to choose from. Round things off with an espresso and watch the sun dip beneath the horizon.

07 9pm: Your Room After a long day enjoying all that the Jumeirah Beach Hotel (and its surrounding area) has to offer, why not head back to your room and grab a chair on the balcony? Ask room service to send up a bottle of something chilled while you relax alfresco and soak up the warm night air. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

While in Dubai stay at Jumeirah Beach Hotel Tel: +971 438 000 jumeirah.com

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Words − Jane E. Brody

Photos − Getty Images, Anthony Harvie

Why it Pays to Look on the Bright Side Recent research shows optimism is linked to better long-term health

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simistic participants in the studies. “The data are very consistent,” he said. “In every case, there was a strong relationship between optimism and a lower risk of disease.

Optimists tend to take better care of their health. They’re more likely to exercise and eat better and are less likely to smoke.”

Rozanski added, “There’s also a biological effect. Pessimists bathe their bodies in damaging stress hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine all day long.

Pessimism increases inflammation in the body and fosters metabolic abnormalities like diabetes. Pessimism is also on the way

to depression, which the American Heart Association considers a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.”

Another researcher, Julia K. Boehm, a psychologist at Chapman University in Orange, California, said: “Optimism promotes problem-solving. It helps people deal with challenges and obstacles in more effective ways. Optimists tend to pursue strategies that make a rosy future a reality.

Their hearts are not constantly pounding.”

In contrast, she said, “Pessimists tend not to be open to the possibility of favourable outcomes, and the fight-or-flight response

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© 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

My husband and I were psychological opposites. I’ve always seen the glass as halffull; to him it was half-empty. That difference, research findings suggest, is likely why I pursue good health habits with a vengeance while he was far less inclined to follow the health-promoting lifestyle I advocated. I’m no cockeyed optimist, but I’ve long believed that how I eat and exercise, as well as how I view the world, can benefit my mental and physical well-being.

An increasing number of recent longterm studies have linked greater optimism to a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and other chronic ailments and to fostering “exceptional longevity,” a category one team of researchers used for people who live to 85 and beyond.

Admittedly, the relationship between optimism and better health and a longer life is still only a correlation that doesn’t prove cause and effect. But there is also now biological evidence to suggest that optimism can have a direct impact on health, which should encourage both the medical profession and individuals to do more to foster optimism as a potential health benefit.

According to Dr Alan Rozanski, one of the field’s primary researchers, “It’s never too early and it’s never too late to foster optimism. From teenagers to people in their 90s, all have better outcomes if they’re optimistic.” Rozanski is a cardiologist at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital in New York who became interested in optimism while working in a cardiac rehabilitation programme early in his career.

In an interview, he explained, “Many heart-attack patients who had long been sedentary would come into the gym and say ‘I can’t do that!’ But I would put them on the treadmill, start off slowly and gradually build them up. Their attitude improved, they became more confident. One woman in her 70s said her heart attack may have been the best thing that had happened to her because it transformed what she thought she could do.”

In a major analysis of 15 studies involving 229,391 participants published in September in JAMA Network Open. Rozanski and colleagues found that people who ranked high in optimism were much less likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular event and had a lower mortality rate from any cause than did pes-

they experience amps up bodily systems that over a long period of time wear the body down.” Boehm and colleagues examined the association of optimism with three health behaviours – physical activity, diet and cigarette smoking – and found that more optimistic individuals were more likely to engage in healthier behaviours.

Lewina O. Lee, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues analyzed several decades of data from women in the Nurses’ Health Study and men in the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study.

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They found that, on average, those with higher levels of optimism, as measured by an assessment tool called the Life Orientation Test, lived longer. Among the most optimistic study participants, the women had a 50 per cent greater chance and the men a 70 per cent greater chance of surviving to age 85. In an interview, Lee said that optimists are better able than pessimists to reframe challenging circumstances and react to them in less stressful ways. They’re also more likely to embrace a can-do attitude toward life and persist in trying to overcome obstacles rather than think there’s nothing they can do about a bad situation, she said.

Although the evidence indicates that a person’s outlook on life tends to stay stable over time, given the potential health benefits of optimism, I asked Rozanski if there might be a way to foster greater optimism in chronic pessimists. He cited the tenets of cognitive behavioural therapy, which can help people develop better coping skills and counter negative thoughts.

“Our thinking is habitual, not conscious, so the first step is to learn to catch yourself when thinking negatively and make a commitment to change how you look at things,” he advised. “Recognize that the way you’re thinking is not necessarily the only way to think about a situation. Just that thought alone can decrease the toxic effect of negativity. Step two is to substitute a better thought that is credible.”

Rozanski likened the practice to increasing muscle strength, “gradually building a ‘muscle’ of positive thinking, for example, by trying to feel more grateful.”

I also asked these experts whether there’s a downside to optimism. The answer: not if it’s realistic and fosters views and outcomes that are within the realm of possibility. Taken to the extreme, however, they cautioned that undue optimism may prompt some people to ignore potential threats and take foolish chances, while people who harbour a modest degree of pessimism may be better prepared emotionally to accept negative outcomes, like losing one’s job, home or spouse.

On the whole, though, optimists tend to be happier people who are better able to bounce back from a serious loss and perhaps even parlay it into a vocational, emotional or financial gain.

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Liquid Asset

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Words − Catherine LeClair

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Could water really cure all our ailments? Here's a closer examination of our relationship with H20

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Water is pretty boring, as far as beverages go. It doesn’t have a catchy jingle, a secret family recipe or even a taste, really. Yet people can’t seem to get enough of it. “I get people in my office every day, every week, saying something like, ‘I’m concerned I’m not hydrated,’ ” said Lauren Antonucci, a nutritionist based in New York City. Their concerns may be based on conventional wisdom. One wellknown recommendation suggests drinking eight glasses of water a day; another warns that if you feel thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. But anxiety about water consumption could also stem from a different, more philosophical source: Hydration is now marketed as a cure for nearly all of life’s woes.

Water, in recent years, has been imbued with the powers of a mysterious elixir. The latest “it” celebrity’s skin care secret? Oh, just water. Feeling sluggish? You probably need more water. Uninspired and utterly hopeless about your career and romantic prospects? Well, have you had any water today? People hydrate as if their reputations depend on it. They dutifully carry water bottles with them wherever they go, draining and refilling them with gusto. Some go so far as to track their consumption in a journal, or with a mobile app. (There’s one that uses a plant as a metaphor for the user’s wellbeing. Depending on the volume of water one has consumed, it may appear to be thriving or wilting.)

Hydration is the mark of a well-adjusted, successful person. On the first of January, Twitter was flooded with resolutions to drink more water, including from Twitter’s brand account. But will more conscious hydration really make for a more productive 2020? “There’s no evidence that a little bit of dehydration really impacts anybody’s performance,” said Dr. Mitchell Rosner, a kidney specialist at the University of Virginia who studies overhydration in athletes. He said that most recommendations for hydration come from studies of athletes, who lose fluid rapidly during workouts or competitions, and are at a much higher risk for dehydration than the average person. For those of us who spend all day at a desk, Rosner said, it’s best to drink only when we feel thirsty. Overhydrating, he said, isn’t helping anyone. At best, Rosner said, “You pee it out.” At worst, it can cause the sodium and electrolyte levels in your body to drop to dangerously low levels. The condition, hyponatremia, can result in hospitalisation and death. (This doesn’t happen often, but... good to know.)

If hydration is the goal, it’s also worth considering that water may not be the most hydrating beverage out there. A study published in 2015, of 72 male subjects, found that full-fat milk, skim milk and orange juice kept people more hydrated than still water did. So, could we be ready for a

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dairy revolution? Unlikely. That’s because water isn’t just a beverage preference that needs to be toppled. It’s a virtue.

In 2017, bottled water surpassed soft drinks as the top beverage in the America by volume, with sales up 7 per cent over the previous year, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp, a consulting firm. Since then, sales have continued to rise.

“It’s no accident that it’s number one,” said Michael Bellas, chairman of Beverage Marketing Corp. “If you had to put together a perfect scenario and plan how to build a category this would have been it.” In the 1970s, ad campaigns by Evian and Perrier introduced the concept of bottled water as a high-end refreshment beverage, Bellas said. Before that, bottled water was sold as a tap water replacement. These new campaigns helped enable bottled water to compete with other drinks such as juice, coffee, fizzy drinks and beer.

By the early aughts, Bellas said, people weren’t just drinking bottled water while sitting down for a meal. They were drinking it all day. While consumers may have begun to curb their intake of caffeinated or sugary beverages, they had no reason to put a limit on zero-calorie, thirst-quenching water. And they were carrying it around with them, on the go. “It changed the way beverages were consumed,” Bellas said. If people were drinking water everywhere, it could be sold anywhere. And it was. Bottled water’s indefinite shelf life and readily available product made its expansion seamless.

As single-use plastic water bottles proliferated, an environmentally conscious response emerged: reusable water bottles. Nalgene, which began as a plastic laboratory pipette maker before outdoorsy scientists realized they were perfect for camping, became an accessory for college students in the early aughts. They could pick a Nalgene colour that reflected their personality and then plaster it with stickers for whatever they cared about: the college radio station, student government, the Dave Matthews Band. The rise of Nalgene coincided with Bellas’ observation that carrying bottled water took on a symbolic meaning during the early aughts.

“It was cool to carry a water bottle around,” he said. “And it was healthy. It made a statement.”

Reusable water bottles made the same statement with an environmental twist. In recent years, evergrowing environmental and health concerns have turned them into a gift-guide-worthy statement item. For the consumers with big budgets, there’s Yeti. For VSCO girls, there’s the Hydro Flask. Aesthetically discerning buyers may gravitate toward design-forward companies like Bkr or Hay. Any of them make for a gift that says, “I love you, and I want you to be hydrated. Water is a go-

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“It’s a complete myth that eight glasses of water are necessary to maintain hydrated skin”

© 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

to remedy for a variety of ailments: exhaustion, headaches, digestive problems, inflammation, dry skin, acne. “It’s a popular idea among patients and a popular idea in consumer media that hydration equals healthy skin,” said Joshua Zeigler, a dermatologist at Mount Sinai in New York City. But that’s not exactly how it works. “It’s a complete myth that eight glasses of water are necessary to maintain hydrated skin,” he said. Still, many consumers treat water like an anti-aging potion.

We think of water as so good for us that the bottled water industry doesn’t need to spend much money on convincing us to buy it, compared with big marketing budgets for other beverages. Advertising expenditures in 2018 were $109m for the bottled water industry, while the beer industry spent more than $1.5bn, and the soft drink industry came close to $1bn, according to data from Kantar Media.

The truth is that for the most part, consumers don’t care what brand of bottled water they buy; the best-selling brand of bottled water, according to the online statistics portal Statista, is “private label,” which is another term for “generic brand.”

Consumers don’t even know who manufactured it, or where. Water appears immune to claims that its benefits are overblown – we need it to survive, after all. Its benefits have even become a meme. There are social media accounts dedicated to berating their followers for not drinking enough water. But if you haven’t quite hit your quota today, don’t worry: Your 2020 isn’t already ruined. The tasty beverages you thought of as dehydrating, like coffee, tea and beer, are actually hydrating.

“Coffee is a hydrating beverage,” said Antonucci, the nutritionist. “If you’re drinking it, let go of the guilt. Enjoy it.”

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Words − Conor Purcell

Photos − Gerry O’Leary, Jumeirah

Wellness 2.0

Recent years have seen massive growth in the wellness economy. So how has this new generation of wellness technology taken over our lives and what does the future hold?

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Spend long enough scrolling through Instagram and you will eventually see them: men and women (although almost always men) who believe they can ‘bio-hack’ their mind and body to ensure they maximise every ounce of their potential. From tracking (and hacking) sleep, to cryotherapy and infrared saunas to meditation and ice water submersion, this new breed of ‘wellness’ gurus believe they can extend human life by as much as 50 years. While these bio-hackers may be the extreme edge of the wellness spectrum, they are just one part of an industry that’s worth – according to some estimates – more than $4 trillion. In 2020, everything we do, from sleeping to breathing to showering, can be sliced, diced and sold back to us as ‘wellness’, making a small number of companies hundreds of millions of dollars.

So why has the wellness industry grown so quickly in recent years? Partly its due to millennials, who, more than any generation before them

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PREVIOUS PAGE: Ladies Hammam at Talise Ottoman Spa, Jumeirah Zabeel Saray CLOCKWISE: Toss up a fresh healthy salad; couple relaxing in pool, Jumeirah Nanjing; include running and stretching into your daily routine; Male Hammam, Talise Ottoman Spa, Jumeirah Zabeel Saray; swimming in the sea is good for you

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value their health (both mental and physical) and are not shy about talking about it. Which brings us to another reason people are more health conscious than ever: social media. Browse Instagram and you will see countless bright-eyed, shinyskinned young people posing at the gym, or hiking, or doing yoga – these days it’s not just important to practice wellness, but to make sure others see you practicing wellness. Add advances in technology, where everything can be tracked and measured, and you have a perfect storm where brands have realised that a lot of money can be made from our everyday fitness habits.

Wellness tourism is a natural offshoot of this, and growing numbers of people now travel abroad for spa breaks and hiking tours to mindfulness retreats in the jungle. None of this, of course, is new. There have always been pilgrimages to the Dead Sea, for example, with travellers convinced the salt water and low altitude was good for their health. The Roman Empire was dotted with bathhouse for weary travellers, while Asians have been visiting hot springs for thousands of years.

What’s different now is that people are far more health-conscious at home, and want to be the same abroad, hence their search for a holiday that matches their lifestyle. Keeping up with a fitness regime is in, splurging on food and drink for two weeks is out. Unsurprisingly, more and more fitness brands are moving into this wellness travel space. Take Equinox, the US-based fitness club which is known for its high-end facilities (and expensive membership fees). It has launched a range of ‘wellness trips’ under the Equinox Explore banner. The trips range from a four-day running tour of Florence (starting at $2,350) to a six-day hiking trip through Morocco (at $6,250). The latter trip will see attendees accompanied by two professional trainers, while there’ll also be a yoga and hammam retreat and ‘breathing sessions.’ According to Leah Howe, the director of Equinox Explore, the goal of the trips is for “members to return home feeling better than when they left. The attendees are intent on maintaining their focus on health and fitness even while away,” she adds. “It’s because of their pre-established connection to the brand that they trust Equinox to be the authority in the travel space and beyond.”

Of course critics claim that much of the wellness industry is nothing more than a marketing ploy to separate the gullible from their hard-earned money. Most doctors agree that the basics of good health are simple, and relatively inexpensive: a healthy balanced diet, exercise, no smoking or excessive alcohol consumption and plenty of sleep.

Of course, while doing all the above might make you healthier, it won’t make much money for the

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Make massages an essential part of your wellness routine; Talise spa, Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa; sleep and relax to rejuvenate; Immerser in views and relaxation at Talise spa, Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa

Five Jumeirah Wellness Options 01. Coffee peeling This wonderfully innovative treatment sees its specially trained staff use Turkish coffee which visually refines, tones, firms and smoothens skin. Based on the traditional Hammam sequence of exfoliation and foam massage, the ritual finishes with a full body coffee peeling. You’ll never look at coffee in the same way again.

Talise Ottoman Spa, Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel, The Palm Jumeirah

02. Water treatment Water is one of the most revitalising elements and the Talise Spa in Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa in Kuwait has several water-based therapies to help guests recharge. These include a hydro pool, sauna and steam room, a snow cabin where guests can move from hot steam to cold air over and over and also state-of-the-art Experience Showers Talise Spa, Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa, Kuwait

03. Apple of your eye Experience something new with Jumeirah' Apple Signature Facial, which has been created in honour of Frankfurt’s favourite fruit. This facial gives your skin a special treat with a rich vitamin boost and apple pectin.

Additionally, the luxurious Hydra

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Force Mask moisturises your skin with pure fruit and floral extracts. Apple extracts also supports the production of hyaluronic acid and aquaporin.

Talise Spa, Jumeirah Frankfurt

04. Chinese relaxation Experience the best in Chinese relaxation with a Traditional Chinese Massage at the Talise Spa in the Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel in Shanghai. You can choose either the 60- or 90-minute option and enjoy soothing, healing strokes as the therapists ensure those tired muscles come back to life.

Talise Spa, Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel, Shanghai

05. Luxury redefined If you would like a large slice of opulence to accompany your wellness experience, you should pay a visit to the Talise Spa at Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, which perched 150 metres above the Arabian Sea, offers a luxurious retreat from the everyday. For a romantic experience like no other, it offers the Romantic Moonlight Swim, which features a cou-ple’s massage, followed by a moonlight swim in its infinity pool, before finishing with champagnes and roses, as well as monogrammed Burj Al Arab Jumeirah bathrobes as a keepsake of your experience.

Talise Spa, Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, Dubai. Tel: +971 4301 7777

huge number of companies now involved in the wellness space. Let’s look at just one aspect of a healthy lifestyle: sleep. The monetisation of sleep in recent years has been fascinating to watch. What should be a free activity has instead been positioned to us as something that needs to be monitored, tweaked and paid for. This is a world in which even a simple mattress company aims to go public, taking advantage of our insatiable appetite to monitor everything we do.

The aforementioned mattress company, Casper, filed paperwork for its IPO last month, in which it declared: “We believe that sleep consists of more than just the act of sleeping and instead, includes the entire set of human behaviours that span from bedtime to wake-up and affect sleep quality – this is what we refer to as the Sleep Arc.” The ‘Sleep Arc’ is, valued

by Casper at $432 trillion, and includes everything from ‘smart mattresses’ to sleep tracking rings to yogic sleep retreats to robots that (you’ve guessed it) cuddle you to sleep.

A near relative of the sleep economy is the meditation one, a $1bn market that has skyrocketed in recent years. Long gone are the days when in order to meditate you just needed a quiet room and peace of mind; now you need an app (of course), a special chair, branded eye shades and a whole plethora of other devices. There is a large dollop of irony in the idea that in order to get away from our hectic digital lives and achieve zen, we first need to download a meditation app.

Yet, more and more of us are doing just that.

In 2011 just over 4 per cent of American adults reported meditating at least once the previous year; in 2017 that number had jumped to more than 14 per cent, according to a study by the Global Wellness Institute. Calm, the most popular meditation app, is downloaded more than 75,000 times a day, and is valued at more than $1bn. Of course, much of the valuation of these companies is tied up in the data that we willingly give up (and they sell to third parties such as insurance companies).

And for every truly useful wellness product, there’s the likes of Goop, the company owned by Gwyneth Paltrow, which sells $120 stickers that are “embedded with a specific combination of biofrequencies designed to enhance and activate particular targeted systems.” Right.

Of course, the drive to stay healthy is good. We look back at decades past and shudder at things such as patients smoking in hospital beds. But, then, as now, the secrets to wellness are fairly simple: get enough sleep, eat healthily, exercise; do everything in moderation. That might not sell any apps, or generate multi-million dollar IPOs, but maybe in this modern rush to track and measure our health habits, we would be well served to log off for a while.

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Words − Edwina George

The Transformation Economy is changing the way we live, work and travel. So what is it and how will it change our futures?

The Power of Transformation

In the summer of 1998, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore co-authored an article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). Titled Welcome to the Experience Economy, the article, and their subsequent book, examined how over hundreds of years, the consumer economy changed from commodities to goods, to services and then, finally, to experiences.

What does this mean exactly? Well, take coffee, as one journalist did when she reviewed the HBR article for Quartz. “As a commodity, it fetches a uniform price on the market – $1.04 per pound, at the time of writing – or a few cents per cup,” Jenni Avins wrote. “As a good – that is, after coffee beans are processed via roasting, grinding, and packaging – they’re worth more. Coffee becomes a service when someone else, say, a guy at a convenience store, brews that coffee for you. That’s even more valuable to consumers, worth maybe a couple of dollars. And when coffee becomes an experience – picture your favourite café, where the music is always good, the lighting is just so, and the barista remembers your order – it’s an experience, worth at least another dollar. But what if that coffee is life-changing? What if, as is the promise of the Seattle-based Bulletproof Coffee – which is essentially coffee made with butter – it has the power to create a desired outcome in the consumer, to help them bio-hack to a happier, smarter, better-rested state of being? And what if you become a Bulletproof acolyte as a result, reading Bulletproof books, listening to the Bulletproof Radio podcast, and paying to attend Bulletproof biohacking conferences? Then, that coffee has evolved to become part of what Pine and Gilmore call the Transformation Economy, where the product is not actually a $5.25 cup of “certified clean coffee blended with Brain Octane Oil and grass-fed butter” at all. The product is a new and improved…you. And for that, Bulletproof and other players in the transformation economy are betting, you are probably willing to pay even more.”

That, in essence is the Transformation Economy: the idea that a product, service or experience can not only satisfy our desires, but transform our lives.

Pine writes that “any company that says it wants to help make you healthy, wealthy, or wise is really in the transformation business.” That includes everything from high-end retreats, yoga trainers, personal development coaching to anything that aims to improve your body, mind or spiritual wellbeing. This new economy has had an effect on the luxury sector too. In the past, luxury was defined as ‘things’, whether be it a Chanel handbag or an expensive bottle of wine. These days luxury – or at least the luxury you want to shout about on Instagram – is more about experiences. A yoga retreat in the Himalayas or a personal breathing coach signifies status far more than the more conventional (and tackier) signifiers of the past. The Transformational Economy ties

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into many different areas of our lives: from the selfimprovement industry (worth around $11bn a year globally), to health and fitness, education and food, travel and transport sectors.

The research firm Euromonitor estimates that spending on luxury experiences will outgrow spending on luxury goods in the next five years at least. Whereas in the past consumers would judge experiences as “well spent”, more and more are now judging experiences on whether they are “well invested.” As Pine told Quartz: “I’m investing this time right now to pay benefits now and into the future. So it’s the compound interest of that time.

When it’s the transformation, it’s even more valuable than it is with an experience.” So what is the

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aim of the Transformational Economy? Why are we increasingly spending our time and money on these attempts to transform ourselves? In order to work that out, we can go back to the 1960s and the so-called Human Potential Movement, which was born out of California’s counter culture and the rejection of consumerist values. The New Yorker writer Calvin Tompkins once described the movement as the “somewhat amorphous but rapidly growing effort to tap unsuspected resources of energy or perception or sensory awareness in all of us.”

The home of the Human Potential Movement was the Esalen Institute, which was founded in Big Sur, California, in 1962. Set on a beautiful piece of land overlooking the Pacific Ocean, it billed itself as a

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communitarian retreat where humans could unleash their full potential. Its founders, Michael Murphy (whose family owned the land) and Dick Price wanted to create a place where people could share ideas about how to live, using a wide range of philosophies, religious disciplines and psychological techniques. It quickly established itself as a home for society’s free thinkers, a place where the counterculture could figure out how society should be.

The Esalen Institute is still open these days, and hosts some 20,000 visitors a year, who pay anywhere from $675 for five days on a shared floor, to $6,000 for an oceanfront suite. The prices aren’t the only things that have changed. While those looking for inner peace in the 1960s believed the answers came

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Coffee, running and yoga have all been repackaged as part of the Transformation Economy

from within, these days, people are more likely to believe they come from technology.

Let’s go back to the aforementioned founder of Bulletproof Coffee, Dave Asprey. Billed as the ultimate ‘bio-hacker’, Asprey is determined to extend his life by whatever means necessary. He once had his own stem cells injected into his spinal cord; takes 100 supplements a day; bathes in infrared light every morning and sits in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Is this the future of the transformational economy? Spending huge amounts of money (Asprey has spent roughly $1m in his quest to live to 180) transforming ourselves?

Bio-hacking is deeply linked to Silicon Valley and the tech scene. In this world, self-transformation is all about the competitive edge; getting one over your competitors. Whether that’s from intermittent fasting, nootropics or cryotherapy is beside the point.

The results are all that matters.

This ethos can be seen in the rise in one of the fastest-growing jobs in America: the life coach.

There are currently more than 1,000 life coach jobs listed on American jobs website, Indeed, a figure that has doubled in the past three years. Whereas in the past life coaches were seen as a service for those struggling with mental health or addiction issues, they are increasingly being hired by those looking to pursue their dreams. “We are seeking out experiences that actually change us in some way, that help us achieve our aspirations,” says Pine. “Increasingly, that will be part of the economy where consumers and even businesses increasingly go to companies and effectively say: Change me.”

Of course, at the heart of the Transformation Economy – and often left unsaid – is the idea that we need to be transformed in the first place, that we are not enough as we are. Add to that voracious companies who see the opportunity to make a lot of money, and you are left with often vulnerable people being made promises that can’t possibly be delivered.

“Once marketers get ahold of it, they can ruin any concept,” says Pine. And really, how ‘life changing’ can a cup of coffee be, or a yoga session, or a meal?

With the Transformational Economy set to keep growing exponentially in the coming years, maybe the truly transformational path would be to attempt to be happy with what you’ve got right now.

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Words − Conor Purcell

A Green Future?

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How will the eco-friendly movement affect the travel industry in the coming years, and how are travel brands embracing a more environmentally-friendly way of doing business?

Once, not so long ago, travel was seen as a noble pursuit – those who travelled were seen as intelligent, curious, kind. Globalisation was the watchword: interconnectivity and travel made the world a smaller place, a better place. Then, things began to change. As more and more cruise ships docked, and an increasing portion of the city’s rental markets were destroyed by Airbnb landlords, tourism was no longer seen as a force for good, but something that destroyed communities and even the very planet we live on. Those who took cruises were seen as selfish ‘boomers’, oblivious to the effects their travels had, while even people who fly are now looked on with suspicion. So, why has this happened, and are we headed into a future where travel is as politically incorrect as smoking?

The Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has become the most visible example of the move towards a sustainable future. She famously doesn’t travel by plane – a practice known as ‘flygskam’, or ‘flight-shaming’, although she is able to do that given her position of privilege (she lives in Sweden, and is famous enough to get alternative offers of transport); for most of us, if we don’t travel by plane, it's almost impossible to travel at all.

Yet airlines are worried. Last year it was revealed that the numbers of flights taken in Sweden had dropped 4 per cent, a decrease many believe was as a direct result of the flight shame phenomenon. Robin Hayes, chief executive of New Yorkbased JetBlue Airways, told industry analysts during a conference call recently that it’s only a matter of time before Americans follow the lead of the Swedish and find more environmentally friendly alternatives to commercial air travel. “This issue presents a clear and present danger, if we don’t get on top of it,” he said. “We’ve seen that in other areas and we should not assume that those sentiments won’t come to the US.” Carbon dioxide emissions accounted for 2.4 per cent of all global CO2 emissions in 2018, a 32 per cent increase since 2013, according to a study by the International Council on Clean Transportation. With air travel growing by about 5 per cent per year, that figure looks set to rise, and with it the condemnation of airlines’ contribution to climate change. As a result, more and more airlines (and

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PREVIOUS PAGE: Interconnectivity and travel have made the world a smaller place LEFT: Travel, and the ability to see how other cultures live, is one of the great gifts of the modern era ABOVE: The airline industry has had to move towards greener ways of doing business

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travel companies in general) are ‘offsetting’ their flights, in an attempt to be more eco-conscious. For example, the British travel company Explore announced last month it would offset all components of its trips, including flights. “Offsetting is a not a band-aid solution, but there is a climate emergency and we wanted to look at what can we do in the short to medium term as the industry moves towards net-zero territory,” said Explore’s John Telfer. Other companies who are offsetting their trips include Bamboo Travel and World Expeditions.

Critics of offsetting claim the practice of calculating the emissions of a trip and purchasing ‘credits’ from projects that remove the equivalent amount of greenhouse gases elsewhere (such as planting trees), is ineffective and often not monitored properly.

Some critics also believe that offsetting schemes encourage people to keep travelling and flying as much as they always have. The travel company Responsible Travel has said of offsetting: “Carbon offsets

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RIGHT: The cruise industry is increasingly being targeted by activists as an unsustainable method of travel FACING PAGE: (from top) Hotels like Jumeirah Vittaveli focus on sustainable food production and recycling too; In Dubai, Burj Al Arab Jumeirah and Jumeirah Al Naseem have released more than 1,600 turtles back into the wild

sum up all that is wrong with our approach to tourism and the climate crisis. They perpetuate the idea this crisis does not prevent unlimited growth with old and highly polluting technology; shifts the moral responsibility for carbon reduction to someone else (not the type of behaviour we need to encourage); and finally there is the small matter that they don't work. From 2021 the EU will stop allowing offsets to be counted towards emissions reductions targets.”

Other areas of travel are also having to adapt to this new more climate-conscious reality. Many hotels are eliminating single-use plastics and are encouraging guests to reuse towels and toiletries, as well as stopping daily newspaper delivery and installing automated lighting systems that conserve energy. This is undoubtedly a good thing. Do we really need a new, individually wrapped bar of soap in our hotel bathroom every morning? Of course not. We don’t need our towels washed every day either. While most agree that such moves are welcome, it’s when the entire act of travel is considered bad that we run into trouble.

For some activists, the world would be a better place if we all just stayed home and grew our own food, avoiding globalisation altogether; returning to some sort of agrarian idyll, in which we slowly save the planet – and the human race – from exctinction. The problem with such a discourse (and it’s one popular among the new generation of climate activists) is that such a magical pre-industrial time never existed. While pollution levels may have been lower in the 1500s, by every other measure of human happiness, things were far worse. Globalisation and industrialisation has made us healthier and less likely to go to war than at any time in human history.

Travel, and the ability to see how other cultures live, is in reality one of the great gifts of the modern era.

While denying climate change isn’t the answer (and a staggering 13 per cent of Americans believe human activity is not responsible at all for global warming), nor is attempting to return to a pre-industrial society. While a westerner travelling to a yoga retreat in Sri Lanka wastes a lot of energy, so does a coal plant in China, and a desalination plant in another country. For travel brands, it’s a tricky road to navigate, but one they will have to in this new era of environmentally-conscious travel.

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Jumeirah’s Sustainability Drive In Dubai, Burj Al Arab Jumeirah and Jumeirah Al Naseem have released more than 1,600 turtles back into the wild, while the entire group is reducing the amount of ‘food miles’ – the produce used across Jumeirah hotels has travelled. Jumeirah is focusing on sustainable agriculture and local businesses who use sustainable food production methods. Another important aspect of sustainability is recycling. When the Jumeirah Beach Hotel was being refurbished last year, 380 tonnes of timber, metal, plastic and other waste products were recycled, while 800 cubic metres of furniture was repurposed for other properties in the Middle East and Africa. In total the project diverted 40 per cent of the total waste away from landfill sites – enough to fill 15 Olympic swimming pools. Last year the Jumeirah Saadiyat Island Resort in Abu Dhabi focused on using alternatives to single-use plastics.

It also reuses and recycles glass bottles wherever possible. The Madinat Jumeirah Resort consumed less energy in 2017 than in 2008, despite the addi-

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tion of an extra hotel in the Jumeirah Al Naseem.

The Jumeirah Creekside hotel meanwhile replaced 10,000 halogen bulbs and tubes with LED lights, making energy savings of Dhs1.4m. A plastic straw free initiative was implemented across the Jumeirah Restaurant Group in 2018, as part of its commitment to environment-friendly best practices.

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Words − Gretchen Reynolds

No More Excuses not to Exercise If we were to examine how we use our time, we will discover we may have more time to exercise than we think

Many people say they don’t have the time to exercise. But most of us spend hours each day viewing screens. If, like many of us, your New Year’s resolution was to find more time to exercise, you may be in luck. According to a recent study of how we typically spend our waking hours, almost all of us have far more leisure time available than we think we do. But the study shows that few of us use even a portion of that free time for physical activity, raising thought-provoking questions about what really keeps us from exercising and how we might better shape our days to get ourselves moving.

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At the moment, about two-thirds of Americans do not meet the standard exercise guidelines of about 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise, such as walking. In past studies of exercise behaviour, when researchers have asked people why they rarely work out, the almost-invariable response has been that time is too tight. Work, family, school, travel and other obligations seem to gobble up the hours, they said, leaving them feeling unable to sneak in a daily walk or a workout.

But whether we are actually too busy has not been clear. Other research has teased the idea that we

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OPENING PAGE: Daily gym and exercise is a must for well-being of mind and body.

LEFT: The Jumeirah Nanjing swimming pool is the perfect place to reach those fitness goals

may underestimate how many hours we spend each day seated in a chair or how much time we devote to watching television.

So, for the new study, which was published recently in Preventing Chronic Disease: Public Health Research, Practice, and Policy, research­ ers from the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, decided to look more closely at what we do with our days and, in particular, how we spend our free time. They began by turning to a large da­ tabase of information gathered by the US Census Bureau. For years, the bureau has conducted an ongoing telephone survey of Americans’ lifestyles, called the American Time Use Survey. For this sur­ vey, tens of thousands of men and women ages 15 or older are asked about their days and how they spent their time, almost minute by minute, dur­ ing the preceding 24 hours. The participants in the survey represent a range of ages, socioeconomic de­ mographics and ethnicities.

The RAND researchers then gathered re­ sponses from more than 32,000 of the survey par­ ticipants between 2014 and 2016 and compared their days, looking at how much of their time was their own. “We defined leisure time as invol­ ving activities that were not in some way required or compulsory,” said Dr Deborah Cohen, a doctor and senior scientist at the RAND Corporation who oversaw the new study.

Time devoted to work, commuting, educa­ tion, sleeping, cleaning, caring for children or oth­ er household members, cooking, food shopping, showering or dressing was not free time. But min­ utes or hours spent exercising, socializing, relaxing, playing, watching television, volunteering, taking classes for fun, chatting with friends, travelling for pleasure or otherwise not working constituted lei­ sure time. The researchers then calculated the aver­ age free time for the 32,000 men and women. And they found plenty. Almost all of the respondents

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– whatever their income, age, gender or ethnicity – reported about five hours a day of leisure time. Men tended to have more free time than women, and older people more than the young. But no group re­ ported less than about four­and­a­half hours a day of free time. For almost everyone, physical activity was uncommon during those hours. Most people instead spent the overwhelming majority of their free time watching television or in front of a phone or a computer.

“I was frankly surprised at how many leisure hours people spend every day in front of screens,” Cohen said. These findings might suggest that, if we adjusted our schedules and turned off the TV, phone or computer, most of us would have plenty of time to work out. But the data also underscore other lingering barriers to exercise, Cohen said.

“For many people, especially women, almost all of their free time is clustered in the evening, after a day of work and chores and caring for chil­ dren,” she said. “They may be tired. They have no child care. There is no gym nearby or it’s expensive and the parks and community centres are closed or do not have programming,” such as evening exer­ cise classes or sports leagues.

So, getting more people moving in 2020 and beyond will require both individual and social ini­ tiatives, she said. “We need to make it easier” for people to devote some portion of their free time to physical activity, Cohen said.

Of course, this study was based on people’s recollections of how they spent their time, which can be greatly inaccurate. But, in general, people overestimate rather than underreport their exer­ cise time (and they reported very little exercise time here). The overarching lesson of the study, then, is that many of us, if we choose to use it, have enough free time to exercise, Cohen said, and that reducing screen viewing might be a simple way to start.

JUMEIRAH FITNESS You have no excuse not to keep in shape when staying at Jumeirah properties. Its Power Fit pro­ gramme offers a range of functional interval and circuit training, using the latest fitness equipment such as TRX, VIPRs, kettlebells and the RIP trai­ ner. There are also a number of swimming fitness classes across its properties, ideal for all ages and available in group or private sessions. All of its fit­ ness centres have highly­trained fitness professio­ nals who can make sure you get the most out of your workout and can tailor specific exercises to your fitness goals. It’s reassuring to know that wherever you travel with Jumeirah, you can make sure your fitness goals are being looked after.

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Power Moves

It’s time to swap your leather straps for a sportier and tougher steel bracelet – here are a few of our favourite picks

THIS PAGE: Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Quantième Complet Phases de Lune With a calendar and moonphase complication, this dive watch allows you to transition seamlessly from wetsuit to black tie.

RIGHT PAGE: Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Co-Axial Master Chronometer Chronograph Capable of diving up to depths of 300 metres, it has a laser-engraved dial and also features a special helium escape valve at 10 o’clock to make sure that it performs flawlessly under pressure.

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LEFT PAGE: Chopard Alpine Eagle A new proprietary alloy of stainless steel that was four years in the making called Lucent Steel A223 was used for the integrated case and bracelet. It is composed partially of recycled steel and is 50 per cent more resistant to scratches compared to conventional steel. THIS PAGE: Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT Master II An absolute showstopper designed for those who travel between time zones, it features a bi-directional rotatable bezel and a two-tone 24-hour cerachrom insert in blue and black ceramic which allows you to keep track of the local time in the city you are travelling to and your home time, simultaneously.

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Index Capri Palace Jumeirah Talise Spa Leg School Capri Palace Neighbourhood Grosvenor House Suites

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Words − Conor Purcell

The new Capri Palace Jumeirah is an oasis of calm on one of Italy’s most beautiful islands

Island Life

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PREVIOUS SPREAD FROM LEFT: There’s plenty of sunshine by the pool at the Capri Palace Jumeirah; The resort is set on a hill overlooking the iconic Gulf of Naples CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Breathtaking view of the Penthouse Acropolis suite and pool; Callas suite bathroom; Warhol private suite with pool and garden; The airy rooms offer stunning sea views

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FROM LEFT: Descend a steep cliff from within the property straight onto a yacht for a day spent exploring the surrounding areas; Unique fabric designs from within a suite at the hotel; The Il Riccio Doc Staircase leads from the property onto a boat

Set on a hill overlooking the iconic Gulf of Naples, the Capri Palace has been a byword for Italian glamour since it opened in the 1960s. Designed in the style of an 18th-century Italian palazzo, its whitewashed façade, lush private gardens and serene cliff-top pool offer the perfect mix of indulgence and relaxation. Foodies will be in heaven here too, with the hotel home to three Michelin stars. L’Olivo, which serves Mediterranean classics, has two stars, while Il Riccio, the hotel’s private beach club, has one.

Capri has a long and storied history.

Emperor Augustus built a palace here, while Tiberius ruled the entire Roman empire from the island, while also buil-

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ding a series of spectacular villas, one of which – Villa Jovis – still stands to this day. Capri has long been viewed as a prize, and was at various times ruled by the Normans, the Spanish, the Aragonese, the French and the English. In 1826, Capri’s famous Blue Grotto became a favourite of Europe’s new ‘tourist class’ and the island soon started attracting artists, writers and travellers attracted by its tranquil beauty.

That tranquil beauty is still very much in evidence, from the splendour of the Blue Grotto and the pristine whitewashed villas to the spectacular cliffs that rise from the deep blue sea. Add stunning views across the Gulf of Naples to Mount Vesuvius, and you have one of Europe’s

most beautiful places. That beauty is evident in the Capri Palace Jumeirah from the pool at the cliff ’s edge to the lush private gardens, there’s plenty of places to unwind in. Wander through the hotel’s airy corridors, underneath vaulted ceilings, surrounded by huge sofas and striking artwork. Sip a morning espresso on your balcony overlooking the Isle of Ischia or wander down to the town of Anacapri for a morning stroll and some pastries.

A wonderful new addition to the Jumeirah brand, there are more than a few reasons to plan a visit soon.

Capri Palace Jumeirah, Capri, Italy Tel: +39 81 97 80111

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Words − Conor Purcell

The new Talise Spa has opened at Jumeirah Beach Hotel, and it features a revolutionary beauty brand new to the UAE

The Wellbeing Revolution

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March - April 2020

March - April 2020

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It’s not often that a revolutionary beauty product lands on the UAE’s shores for the first time, but the new Talise Spa at Jumeirah Beach Hotel sees the arrival of 111SKIN. Created by Dr. Yannis Alexandrides, an experienced cosmetic surgeon from London’s renowned Harley Street, 111Skin’s range of products are a result of the more than 20 years’ experience within the absolute cutting edge of the beauty world.

His range of curated, advanced medi-spa products for precision skincare treatments, aim to protect, heal and restore all different types of skin.

Speaking about the partnership, Dr. Yannis said: “The brand combines the results of 111 Harley St. with the luxury of 111SKIN, offering a selection of

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face and body experiences that address all skincare concerns. We are so thrilled to have found a home in Jumeirah Beach Hotel, which shares our values of luxury, wellness and relaxation.”

With a menu that offers a range of bespoke treatments to soothe the body and the soul, Talise Spa has something for every wellness need.

From the Signature Collection, the Journey of Senses is the perfect choice for a truly relaxing experience, while for those who seek the healing powers of cryotherapy, the menu features the Elite 111CRYO Collection, enriched by the 111SKIN's specialised products.

This bespoke collection includes focused treatments and stimulating sport massages, scientifi-

March - April 2020

OPENINGPAGE: Pampering and indulgence for men at Talise Spa. LEFT PAGE: Wind down together at Talise Spa. THIS PAGE: Step up your beauty ritual in the cool confines at your home with products from the Talise Spa.

cally proven to release tension and revive muscles.

111SPA/CLINIC is a revolutionary spa concept offering aesthetic-performance face and body treatments combined with the latest technological advances, available in a multisensory spa environment. Each treatment is inspired by surgical expertise, powered by clinically-engineered skincare, utilising in-clinic technology approved by Dr. Alexandrides. Set over 1,200 sqm of wellness space, the Talise Spa is the ultimate destination for those looking to combine cutting-edge beauty products with traditional Arabian hospitality.

Talise Spa, Jumeirah Beach Hotel Tel: +971 4 406 8800

March - April 2020

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A HEALTHY PERSPECTIVE The newly refurbished Talise Spa at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel offers a few of the city’s most advanced wellness procedures

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March - April 2020

LEFT PAGE: Talise spa at Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa is a sanctuary of relaxation. THIS PAGE: Talise spa, Jumeirah beach hotel is a relaxing haven for men and women.

BELOW RIGHT: Outdoor shower at Talise Spa, Madinat Jumeirah

The Jumeirah Beach Hotel has recently opened a new Talise Spa, as part of its transformation into a wellness hub.

Inspired by its proximity to the ocean, the stunning space features a menu of specialised treatments and exclusive

products including the 111SKIN and 111CRYO Collection, which have been sourced to aid the journey from everyday life into an oasis of serenity.

Located on the first floor of the hotel and overlooking Burj Al Arab Jumeirah and the beautiful Arabian Gulf, the spa offers a huge range of wellness options.

With a range of dedicated treatments performed by its world-class staff, you have no excuse not to look after yourself.

For starters, sample the Jumeirah De-Stress Massage, a 75-minute top to toe massage. It combines a number of techniques such as stretching, wringing and kneading of muscles, as well as your choice of pure aroma oils.

Also, try the Crystal Black Diamond Non-Surgical Lift Facial, which is a 90-minute process featuring cuttingedge 111SKIN products for an amazing facial rejuvenation. If you want something simpler, book a Back, Neck and Shoulder Massage, which will rejuvenate and revitalise you in only 30 minutes.

Post treatment, guests are welcome to enjoy the sauna, steam room and pools, or take a hot (or cold) shower.

Of course, the new space is not the only wellness destination in the hotel. Complementing the spa are the new holistic lifestyle and wellness club, The J Club, and FIKA, the newly opened restaurant by Chef Izu Ani. Situated just next door to Talise, The J Club offers best-in-class gym equipment and fitness programmes, while FIKA is the perfect spot for guests to relax and enjoy a “clean indulgence� from the innovative menu.

Talise Spa Jumeirah Beach Hotel Tel: +971 4 406 8800

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LEG SCHOOL The Capri Palace Jumeirah is home to an innovative treatment that looks after your legs

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March - April 2020

LEFT PAGE: The treatment at the Leg School in Capri Beauty Farm is topped off by walking in Kneipp pools, where the ‘medicated’ water, which varies in temperature from 18C to 40C degrees; THIS PAGE: The patented method is designed to specifically treat vascular problems of the lower limbs

March - April 2020

Legs are a vital, if often overlooked, part of any beauty regime. Luckily, guests in the Capri Palace Jumeirah, will be able to experience a specialised vascular treatment, which has been baptised The Leg School. After years of research, the Medical Director of Capri Beauty Farm, Professor Francesco Canonaco, has developed and patented a unique method to treat the lower limbs' vascular problems in a way that’s both gentle and effective.

The method involves the application of clay mud and medicated cold bandages in a formula made up of vegetal substances with an isotonic action acting on lymphatic microcirculation and venous return, strengthening capillaries and draining and oxygenating tissue.

The formula calls for substances such as escin, ginkgo biloba, caffeine, tonka bean, mineral salts such as magnesium, potassium, chromium and trace elements from vasotonic action. The treat-

ment is topped off by walking in Kneipp pools, where the ‘medicated’ water, which varies in temperature from 18C to 40C degrees, activates a very effective vascular process. Results are noticeable after a single treatment. However, to achieve the maximum effect, it's recommended to opt for a programme lasting between five to seven days.

A seven-day treatment costs $1,700 and includes daily aqua gym lessons, a thalasso body scrub, a drainage massage, six leg school circulatory treatments and one cold stone massage.

Capri Beauty Farm Open daily from 9am-9pm Capri Palace Jumeirah Tel: +39 081 978 0505

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March - April 2020

LEFT PAGE: Take in the stunning and mesmerising views from the hilltop lighthouse

Capri Neighbourhood Guide Exploring the beautiful Italian island Start your morning off with an espresso overloo­ king the sea at the Capri Palace Jumeirah (39 081 9780111). A daily breakfast buffet is organised at the two Michelin star L’Olivo restaurant. Watch the boats sail past in the sea below while the team of wonderful staff cater to your every culinary whim.

The Museo Casa Rossa di Anacapri (+39 081 8382193) is located on Anacapri’s beautiful main street, which is lined with whitewashed period houses. Casa Rossa, which was built by an eccentric American colonel 1886, is a perfect example of an Italian ‘residence­museum,’ which was very much in fashion at the end of the 19th century. The space is filled with archaeological excavations, statues, art­ works, bric­a­brac and a variety of different interior styles. The museum also organises a variety of cul­ tural events and temporary exhibits and is a must­ visit during your Capri stay.

For an even more impressive building, head to the Piazetta and climb the steps to the church of Santo Stefano, which was once Capri’s cathedral.

Designed by the renowned royal architect, Francesco Antonio Picchiatti, the building was constructed in Capri’s typical baroque style, and offers some beau­ tiful views of the town and the surrounding hills.

Then, pay a visit to the island’s most famous attrac­

March - April 2020

tion: the Blue Grotto. This stunning natural cavern is 25 metres wide and 60 metres long, with a tiny entrance less than a metre high. You’ll have to lie down on one of the wooden boats that will take you through the cave (watch out for your head), but the sense of calm once you are inside the cavern is worth the effort, with the boats bobbing on the eerily calm, deep blue waters.

One of the most beautiful villas on the island is Villa San Michele, which was built by the Swedish doctor, Alex Munthe, more than 327 metres above sea level. The views are spectacular as are the sur­ rounding gardens. There are lots of priceless arte­ facts here too, from a marble bust of the Emperor Tiberius to Tuscan furnishings from the 1700s, Ro­ man frescoes and even an Egyptian sphinx, which overlooks the sea below.

After all that walking, you will be in the mood for something special to eat. And there’s nowhere else on the island like the Il Riccio (39­0818371380), Capri Palace Jumeirah's one Michelin Star restau­ rant, which offers stunning cliffside views, as well as a whole range of fresh seafood. A favourite among visitors is the spaghetti alla chitarra with sea urchins, while the dessert selection (housed in the aptly named Temptation Room) is out of this world.

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Our Hotels DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Burj Al Arab Jumeirah This iconic sail-shaped hotel redefined luxury when it opened, and still offers the finest in service and experience.

Jumeirah Beach Hotel With ocean-view rooms and suites, restaurants, cafés, bars, swimming pools and a private beach, this is the ultimate family hotel looking fresher than ever after its recent refurbishment.

Jumeirah Al Naseem This sprawling five-star property features lush gardens, generous terraces and stunning views of the Arabian Gulf.

Jumeirah Al Qasr Designed in the unparalleled opulent style of a Sheikh’s summer residence, Al Qasr offers the ultimate in Arabian style.

Jumeirah Dar Al Masyaf Understated charm is the byword at this intimate yet generous property.

Jumeirah Mina A’Salam Located in the heart of Madinat Jumeirah, Mina A’Salam is a luxurious boutique hotel. Take an abra through the canals that surround the hotel and soak up the atmosphere.

Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa

Jumeirah Emirates Towers These two towers are icons of Dubai’s skyline. The hotel offers 400 rooms, eight meeting rooms, 11 bars and restaurants and lots of business and meeting facilities.

Jumeirah Living World Trade Centre Residence Executive living reaches new heights at these serviced apartments in the heart of Dubai’s business district.

Jumeirah Zabeel Saray

Zabeel House by Jumeirah, The Greens

Nestled in the serene environs of The Palm Jumeirah’s West Cresent, this property exudes Ottoman-era charm and stunning views to bask in.

This 210-room social hub with its quirky neighbourhood, Insta-worthy interiors, laid back vibes and eccentric concepts is worth a stay.

Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Royal Residences

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

serviced beautiful residences in the heart of Abu Dhabi.

Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island Resort A resort that redefined grandiosity in the capital, this property situated on a 400-metre private beach offers a host of leisure activities.

Jumeirah Al Wathba Desert Resort & Spa Nestled in the spectacularly beautiful Arabian Desert, this boutique resort offers unrivalled tranquillity and views.

MANAMA, BAHRAIN Jumeirah Royal Saray

Set amid lush tropical gardens and facing a magnificent lagoon pool, the Royal Residences set a new bar for accommodations in the city.

Jumeirah at Etihad Towers These five dramatically sculpted towers have become an Abu Dhabi landmark, and they are as spectacular inside as out.

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FRANKFURT, GERMANY Jumeirah Frankfurt

Jumeirah Creekside Hotel Offers wonderful views of the Creek and the Dubai skyline. It’s perfect for business travellers who need to unwind.

Situated on a private beach in Bahrain’s new Seef district, the Royal Saray marries Arabian opulence with worldclass service.

Jumeirah at Etihad Towers Residences Redefine the idea of home at these fully

This 218-room five star property offers discreet splendour in the heart of the continent's financial hub.

March June- -April July 2020 2019

Jumeirah Frankfurt

Jumeirah Vittaveli

GUANGZHOU, CHINA

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

MALLORCA, SPAIN

Jumeirah Guangzhou

Grosvenor House Suites

by Jumeirah Living

Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel & Spa

There’s nowhere quite like Mayfair, and this Park Lane property exudes oldworld charm and understated service.

Nestled amidst Sóller Valley and the UNESCO World Heritage Tramuntana Mountain range, the Port Soller offers understated luxury in the heart of one of Europe’s hippest destinations.

With 126 rooms all of which are located from the 50th floor, majestic views of sunsets and starry skies along with delectable cuisine at any of the seven outlets makes it a delighful base.

Jumeirah Carlton Tower Jumeirah Living Guangzhou Located in the heart of Guangzhou, this already iconic building offers 169 luxurious residences, a temperaturecontrolled outdoor swimming pool and a host of F&B options.

CAPRI, ITALY Capri Palace Jumeirah This stunning, white-washed hotel offers two Michelin Star restaurants and spectacular views of the azure Gulf of Naples.

This striking Knightsbridge property is currently under renovation and expected to open in spring 2020.

NANJING, CHINA Jumeirah Nanjing

Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel Located in the heart of Belgravia, and perfectly located between Hyde Park and the West End, Lowndes offers a boutique townhouse experience with the unrivalled hospitality Jumeirah is renowned for.

SOUTH MALÉ ATOLL, MALDIVES

KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT

Designed by the legendary architect Zaha Hadid, this hotel is a stunning piece of design.

SHANGHAI, CHINA Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel From the 16-metre high lobby to the artwork that adorns the walls, the Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel is an eclectic fusion of new and old.

Jumeirah Vittaveli Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa Go for the huge private beach, seven world-class restaurants, kid’s club and a comprehensive fitness centre.

June - July March - April 2019 2020

Vittaveli mixes island charm with worldclass service. Enjoy the views, watch the sunset or even choose to cycle one of the complimentary bikes out to a deserted spot. Bliss.

COMING SOON Bali – Jumeirah Bali Oman – Jumeirah Muscat Bay

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The shot

The tranquil and serene surroundings near Grosvenor House Suites by Jumeirah Living, London

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March - April 2020