Blue Mountains’ Scandinave Spa is calling on the provincial government to provide better enforcement assistance to business owners.
“We would like better communication and we would like more enforcement instead of just shutting businesses down for an extended period of time,” said Mylisa Henderson, co-owner and director of marketing and sales for Scandinave Spa.
Henderson spoke to the Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM) council members during a special meeting of council held earlier this week.
“We thought we'd have a special meeting to get input from members of our community on the effects of the shutdown on them and what we should be doing to help them through that,” said TBM Mayor Alar Soever.
At the spa, Henderson said operating at reduced capacity for the past five months and then having to close over the holidays has had a significant impact on revenue.
“As winter is a very big part of our business, the effects of getting shut down, specifically for the two-week holiday period, has been very significant,” she said.
Going forward, Henderson said she would like to see enforcement assistance for businesses if the province plans to continue to restrict travel from region to region.
She explained that for the past several months the spa has been seeing a number of large groups from outside the region book services.
“We have limited groups to a maximum of two people and through our refunding of guests over the past few weeks, I have seen people that have used the same credit card to reserve space in the Scandinave bath experience for groups of 12 to 14 people,” she said.
Henderson said that despite the spa making a special effort to communicate to guests about the capacity limits in advance of their arrival, visitors have bucked the restrictions.
“As they arrive, being compliant to the rules of being just two people in the experience is a challenge,” she said. “If the government of Ontario believes that travelling into the region is an issue, then we really would respectfully ask for some assistance in enforcing those rules.”
She added that she understands the importance of limiting travel throughout the province, but “we don't want to be the enforcers of that rule.”
Recently, the facility has received better news to start the new year – registered massage treatments will be permitted during the shutdown.
“We have confirmed, through Grey Bruce Public Health, that registered massage treatments are permitted during the shutdown for guests in the area needing health services,” she said.
As a result, the spa is currently working through the details to be able to offer a limited number of registered massage treatments for the week of Jan. 11 and Jan. 18.
Along with offering limited massage therapy appointments, the spa is also offering a spa-at-home initiative.
“People can place an order for some of our specialty products in our boutique and are able to do a version of health and wellness at home,” Henderson added.
