Some Hotel Companies and Airports Start to Offer Yoga

A Moment of Zen, on the Go
By  JANE L. LEVERE


Hotel companies, and even some airports, are beginning to cater to people who have taken up yoga. Hotels are providing yoga equipment and videos in guest rooms, as well as classes, often for no charge, while airports are offering yoga studios to passengers in transit.

According to a study released by Yoga Journal last month, the number of Americans practicing yoga jumped 29 percent, to 20.4 million — or 8.7 percent of American adults — since the previous study in 2008, when 15.8 million practiced.

Hotels’ yoga initiatives represent their response to “travelers’ desire to lead healthier lifestyles,” said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst for Hudson Crossing, a travel industry consulting company.

Supplying yoga mats and videos in guest rooms results in “very little incremental cost” to hotel owners, said Bjorn Hanson, dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at N.Y.U. Offering such amenities also might justify higher rates, he said, since yoga devotees could be more willing to pay more for a room if the hotel met their yoga needs.  Hotels are increasing space for yoga practitioners in its fitness centers last year. 

Yoga’s increasing popularity among business travelers may be due to the “physical and mental balance” it brought “into hectic life while you’re on the road.”
Many individual hotels in business travel destinations  offer yoga classes at spas and fitness centers onsite or nearby.  Other individual hotels provide a variety of yoga initiatives, a yoga mat, deck of cards illustrating 52 yoga poses and “harmony of life” music CD delivered upon request to guest rooms, an in-house, yogic, lifestyle trainer at the spa  and so on.

San Francisco International Airport opened a yoga studio last January that is immediately past security in Terminal 2 and is open at all hours. A yoga studio opened last April at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in previously unused corridor space connecting Terminals D and B. It offers exercise mats, a privacy screen and a beginner’s yoga video that runs 24 hours a day on a large-screen TV.

Business travelers who want to maintain their yoga practice on the road can use Yoga apps,  available to Apple and Android users and finds and books local yoga classes. Travelers can also subscribe to yoga videos on demand ...





Source:
Some Hotel Companies and Airports Start to Offer Yoga - NYTimes.com

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/business/some-hotel-companies-and-airports-start-to-offer-yoga.html?src=recg