Aderinola ‘Princess’ Ekanola is the pioneer Spa Operations Manager at Celeb Medical Spa by VCP Hotels Limited where she led the preopening planning, operational setup, staff recruitment and training, inventory and supplies management, promotions and budget management for the medical spa and its signature product line. In this interview with Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha, she speaks on how Celeb Medical Spa by VCP is reducing medical tourism and boosting the hospitality sector in Lagos. Excerpts:
Read also: Giwa Gardens: An aquatic escape, opens to boost Lagos tourism offerings
Tell us about the Celeb Beauty Clinic by VCP and what impact it will have on hospitality sector?
Celeb Medical Spa by VCP is spearheaded by Bimbo Ige, and the chairman of Victoria Crown Plaza, Emeka Ofor loves the idea of ensuring that this place becomes a one-stop wellness hotel, so he decided to partner with Bimbo Ige who is the owner of Celeb Medical Spa by VCP. This is why it is called Celeb Medical Spa by VCP. It is that hotel you come in and you have everything you need. We all know what aesthetics is. The idea is to ensure that people are able to gain their confidence in beauty and also to be able to get health and skin intact. I don’t like to stop at a hospital because it gives me the feeling that I am going into a hospital for treatment. There is that bit of fear. But then again you have an aesthetic clinic. First thing first is that stepping into the space, the entire space speaks wellness. It speaks calmness and healing one way or the other because it has to do with aesthetics. Then down to what we talk about your health, your beauty and enhancing your natural beauty. Here, we have beautiful package that are personalised. It is centred on reaching you on what you require or your basic concerns in terms of body and skin. A lot of people are camera shy perhaps because they are dealing with a particular skin issue or challenges but we have the personalised solution for you here. So why not have the best skin you want? Why not have the best body and health you desire? You don’t have to wait for an emergency situation or waiting for stress or pollution to cause you to break down when you could just walk in easily and get yourself a vitamin. These are vitamins that are infused into your system, helping you to boost your immune system and protect your liver and kidney from toxicity. They are helping you relieve stress. Everything the vitamins are giving you is what your body naturally excretes but due to a lot of work, stress and the things you are exposed to, we run short of them and that is why we need to take the vitamins. The moment you understand that you need to take care of yourself and look as young as you can, you can do that. The reason why people are going through wear and tear is because they give minimal attention to their health, look and how they feel generally. There is a way beauty boosts your confidence and colour. So what we are trying to do here is to boost your confidence and let you know that you are beautiful naturally and you can get the best of health and skin that you desire.
How safe are the vitamins you give. Are there some side effects?
Every medication that is administered at the spa is administered by professional and certified doctors and medical institution. So when they are giving you a personalised treatment, it is definitely safe for your health. Again, before you get any treatment, there is always education on what you are getting. Vitamin A, B, C amongst others are all vitamins we know are very good for the body. They do not have any side effect. With Celeb Medical Spa by VCP, you definitely know that you are getting it from the right person. Everyone administering one procedure or another is a professional doctor and medical aesthetician with certificate in aesthetics.
What is the ideology behind merging a hotel and a beauty clinic?
This is a hotel and hotels have to do with wellness as well. This is a beauty clinic and beauty clinic has to do with wellness as well. The idea of having a spar in the hotel is to ensure that it’s your one-stop wellness hotel where you have everything in one that are in line with hospitality and wellness.
Read also: Grow your business, build your brand: The winning formula for Nigerian tourism entrepreneurs
How will this help reduce overseas medical tourism; Can you help with percentage?
When you want to deal with anything that has to do with people, you can run percentage but not an entire figure. This is because we are a lot. If you have a wellness or aesthetics clinic, it will really reduce the rate at which we are having to experience emergencies because what we are trying to do is call people back to being attentive to their health and their skin. A lot of people don’t want to rush to the hospital but they want to come to an aesthetic clinic and you realise you are having literally almost the same treatment. But what it covers is the initial treatment that will not cause you to run for an emergency. So, if this is well known and there is a large awareness, then we should be able to curb emergencies. I do not mean fetal emergencies but little emergencies that have to do with health issues. If 70 percent of us are conscious and paying attention to our skin or health in general, not many of us will find ourselves in hospitals. Let us address it from the foundation before it gets to something that requires emergency.
