THE first salvo was fired in May. Lifestyle company Singapore Explorer announced it will open an $8 million, 60-room hotel and spa at the Labrador Park nature reserve by year end.

It is expected to have 20 treatment rooms, an infinity pool and a glasshouse gym.

Up next: A new 300,000-sq ft spa - the biggest here yet - is expected to open its doors.

About one-third the size of Suntec City, it is expected to give Thailand's award-winning 305,000-sq ft spa in Hua Hin, the Chiva-Som International Health Resort, a run for its money.

The local company behind this ambitious project is not ready to go on the record yet, but it hopes its shock-and-awe offensive will muscle Singapore onto the destination spa map.

A source involved in the mega project, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says: 'This is one way Singapore can emerge as a credible spa destination. Till now, we have not had anything of this size and status.'

Right now, only Spa Botanica on Sentosa fits the bill here as a destination spa - an establishment with on-site accommodation that allows guests to indulge in spa treatments for days, even weeks, on end.

Whole holidays are planned around destination spas, as opposed to day spas, which tend to be stand-alone businesses or part of a hotel, with guests just popping in for quick treatments.

But small-scale though they may be, spas have been sprouting up here in earnest. Their invasion started in the early 1990s, when the now-defunct Phytomer Spa at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa hotel first unveiled its hydrobath, never before seen in neighbourhood beauty salons.

Today, there are 472 spas and massage parlours in Singapore, about a 30 per cent increase from 2003. Of these, there are estimated to be over 130 sizeable, full-fledged spas with amenities like locker rooms and jacuzzis.

A third are day spas. About one fifth are hotel or resort spas. The rest are a mix of smaller spas squeezed into beauty salons, slimming centres or sports clubs.

Despite newcomers muscling in, business is booming, from all accounts.

According to Mr Peter Sng, the owner and managing director of SpaCare, his six Aspara spas here see more than 45,000 visitors each year. The president of the Spa Association of Singapore predicts 'double-digit growth' this year for the spa and beauty industry, which is worth well over $120 million.

At least 10 other major spa players here also report that their bottom lines have been burgeoning, to the tune of 20 to 50 per cent each year.

So much so that local spa brands like the Como Shambhala, Raffles Amrita, Aspara and Banyan Tree have embarked on aggressive overseas expansion drives, spawning offshoots in locations as far flung as the Maldives and Japan.

In March 2004, Singaporean fashion entrepreneur Christina Ong bought over the exclusive Begawan Giri resort in Bali, where she has now set up her meditative spa, Como Shambhala. Rooms start at US$495 (S$800) a night.

Spa Central

THROUGHOUT South-east Asia, a fierce battle for the spa dollar is being waged.

From Thailand to the Philippines, to Indonesia, the region is taking the business of relaxation very seriously indeed.

The fad of spas - which derives from the Latin phrase 'solus per aqua' (health by water) and made its debut as early as 100BC as Roman baths in Italy - first took off in the United States in the late 1980s. It was part of a New Age craze where people went in search of extra 'Om' in their harried lives.

In the early 1990s, South-east Asia started latching on to, adapting and refining the spa concept with homespun remedies and their own hospitality traditions.

These days, going to a spa in the region could mean anything from being swaddled in virgin coconut oil-coated banana leaves for a Hilot massage, kicking back in a sea water jacuzzi to getting a Botox injection.

Industry watchers estimate the spa industry in places like Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia has been growing steadily, by up to 30 per cent each year.

South-east Asia has now become spa central, with practically every country entering the fray. As the battle heats up to be the region's spa hub, how do Singapore's chances look?

Grim, it seems.

Since spas rely on word-of-mouth recommendations, reader-driven polls, such as the Spa Asia Crystal Awards, are useful indications of how they are doing. The awards are organised by the Singapore-based Spa Asia magazine to recognise the best spas in Asia.

Last year, Singapore picked up just four out of 41 awards. One was a local award for Spa of Singapore, which went to Spa Botanica. The only regional awards Singapore won were for Best Spa Academy, which went to the Spa Academy training school by homegrown Raffles International; Best Day Spa (mid-size), which was Earth Sanctuary Day Spa at Club Street; and Best Hotel Spa, which went to Raffles Amrita Spa at Raffles The Plaza hotel.

Most of the big winners were Indonesian spas.

The prestigious Best Destination Spa went to the famed Chiva-Som.

Industry experts say Singapore's business-like reputation precedes it. As such, more laid-back and renown spa destinations like Thailand and Indonesia lead the relax-in-South-east Asia charge.Their destination spas, such as Chiva-Som at Hua Hin and the Ritz-Carlton's Bali Resort & Spa, are big draws.

Bangkok-based director of Horwath Spas Consulting, Mr Andrew Jacka, says Singapore is not yet a spa hub because its industry is still based on the day spa experience where people are not able to fully immerse themselves in long, luxurious treatments.

Spas also form just one small facet of the Singapore Tourism Board's (STB) Uniquely Singapore campaign, unlike in Thailand which dubs itself the Centre of Excellent Health of Asia or the Philippines, which describes itself as the Islands of Wellness in tourism campaigns.

Beyond highlighting unique spa concepts here on its promotion materials, the STB has no spa-specific thrust for now.

Coalition efforts

MEANWHILE, Singapore's neighbours are wasting no time mounting coalition efforts.

In 2004, more than 700 spa owners in Thailand put aside business rivalry to form their own federation. According to its president, Dr Paiboon Pilun-owad, it has the support of at least five government agencies, including the Ministry of Public Health, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and Ministry of Commerce.

The government liaises regularly with it on issues such as accreditation, guidelines implementation, training and certification of therapists and promotional activities.

'We are lucky that the government and spa industry speak the same language,' says Dr Pilun-owad.

Two years on, the Thai industry, which is valued at US$200 million (S$318 million), is still reaping the benefits of unity. Spa-goers numbered 4.15 million there last year, up 34 per cent from 3.1 million in 2004. About 80 per cent were tourists.

As Dr Pilun-owad says: 'We strengthened from within first. So now, we are not afraid of competition from anyone.

The Philippines, home to world-famous spas such as The Farm at San Benito in Lipa, and Mandala Spa on Boracay Island, is also adopting this 'work together, grow together' model.

From fewer than 10 members in 2004, its spa association now has 95 and has also roped in the government. The association's vice-president, Ms Marjorie Lopingco, says: 'Now we have more bargaining power.'

Indonesia - which has about 900 spas - established its association in 1999, supported by the Department of Tourism, Department of Health, Department of Education and Labour.

Since then, it has also set up a Bali Spa Association for the estimated 140 spas on the island.

Malaysia - a relatively new spa contender - is also setting up its own spa association to look into growing the industry quickly.

Sand and service BUT while such associations, committees and 'hardware' are easy to set up, 'software' may be more of a challenge.

Exotica, history, tradition and culture - which wealthy Singapore is ironically poor in, compared to the rest of the region - are what lure spa-goers to Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Most of the massage techniques in these countries are indigenous and age-old arts. As Ms Mary Darling, representative of the Bali Spa Association, puts it: 'Spa culture has been a part of Bali for ages. Massage, in particular, became very big on the beaches in the early 1970s when Bali started to take off.'

These spa destinations have long been enshrined because of their combination of white sandy beaches, rustic resorts and good attitude - which make for a conducive setting for luxuriant pampering.

Bali's spa appeal, says Mr Jacob Mathre Ranjan, general manager of the Jamu Traditional Spa there, is that its staff - drawn from its population of modest-living ritualistic Hindus - tend to be 'well-mannered and simple people'.

At the end of the day, Mr Ravi Chandran, managing director of spa operations for luxury resort brand Banyan Tree Spa, says that the spa business is a 'touch industry'.

It depends on how massage therapists patiently unknot their customers' backaches or humbly greet people at the door. All that derives from their cultural background and upbringing rather than just training and skills upgrading.

So while industry-wide initiatives backed by government may lead to better-qualified therapists or accreditation of spas, they are not likely to enhance the spa experience.

Mr Chandran says: 'How can we accredit someone like a jamu healer in Indonesia with some sort of qualification? It will help but I don't think it's that important to clients.'

With the stakes raised so high today, Singapore has its work cut out for it.

It now has to contend with the arrival of eager-to-please newcomers like Vietnam and Cambodia. Vietnam has more than 150 spas of varying quality in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, mostly run by locals and some French and Japanese investors, says the Vietnamese Embassy here.

Similarly, Siem Reap now has world-class spas in its international resorts like Amansara and Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor, run by the Amanresorts group and Raffles International, respectively.

Says Ms Trina Dingler Ebert, the general manager of Amanresorts: 'So much of the world's healing arts first originated in Asia. We draw on these traditions to offer our guests a deeper experience of the surrounding culture.'

So, beneath all the smiles, the spa wars look set to rage on.