An award-winning Wellness Consultant & Spa Designer with a successful track record in designing, developing and launching unforgettable wellness concepts, Retreats, treatments and products, for emerging and established brands in the hospitality sector.
Patrizia Bortolin is a Life Coach, Transformational Wellness Pioneer, Wellbeing researcher and World Food Travel Association Ambassador, with extensive experience in transformational tourism, wellness sales & marketing, healing wellness hospitality, sustainability, beauty & natural remedies.
Industry leaders, high profile clientele and travel specialists recognised Bortolin’s unique ability to design and manage memorable Spa Concepts in remarkable locations. She incorporates world-class healing, beauty, and contemporary wellness principles to create world-renowned spas for which she has been honoured with the most prestigious international Spa Awards.
A love of learning and passion for healing continually guides Bortolin in building a meaningful career in international Spa Management and her pioneering mental wellbeing approaches, awareness and body-mind-spirit integrated wellness tools.
Bortolin has extensive experience leading Medical Spas, Spa Destinations and luxury Spa Hotels which gives her a profound and very concrete knowledge and understanding of wellness hospitality. She has also previously travelled widely as an Executive for Tour Operators and Travel Agencies.
Patrizia Bortolin, Hospitality Wellness/Spa Designer & Researcher
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I am a creative Spa Designer and Holistic Coach and I am the co-founder of the award-winning company Glowing Flow Wellness Specialists. My innovative approach incorporates world-class healing, beauty and contemporary wellness principles to create world-renowned Spas, which I've been honored with all the most prestigious international Spa awards for.
I have a deep and authentic passion for the Spa world, nature, psychology and it is key for me to keep spirituality and development of the human potential as priority.
Holistic healing is my personal and professional world, and throughout my career I have been lucky to enrich my journey with so many meaningful experiences, becoming a Mindfulness teacher and Transformational Travel Specialist, a leading expert in psycho-aromatherapy and a Color Coach and specializing in psychosomatic and creative approaches to wellness, getting also the certification as Happiness Coach and Laughter Yoga and Yoga Nidra leader.
Originally driven by a personal desire to overcome psycho-emotional stress, I work with a range of holistic techniques designed to make life more meaningful and joyful.
As wellness consultant I’m dedicated to create signature masterpieces, sharing a successful preventative attitude towards life that helps avoid sadness, loneliness, insomnia, stress, lifestyle disorders and psychosomatic manifestations not only for guests but also and first for the team members.
I love silence, cats, I feel at home by the Mediterranean charming.
My favorite place on earth is India, I love participating in Vipassana and Yoga Nidra retreats there and visiting my favorite, little Ashram in West Bengal. This has been my yearly appointment for many years.
I’m passionate about personality tests and I’m always extremely optimist.
What is your business name and how do you help your clients?
I founded the company Glowing Flow with Stefano Battaglia, an extraordinary and experienced Visiting Master, Spa Trainer and Retreat Leader, named by the Tatler Spa Guide among the ‘Five Best Healers in the World’: as award-winning and internationally renowned Wellbeing Specialists, we create sartorial and innovative Wellness Concepts and design projects for new Spa Destinations.
Glowing Flow also helps Hotels to refresh & re-look their existing Spas, as well as design unforgettable spa Menus, treatments and life-changing retreats.
We support with 360° Wellness Project Management, Wellness Sales & Marketing Strategies and Team Coaching, ensuring that authentic new ideas come to life through meaningful brainstorming.
“May your Wellness Experiences find their Glowing Flow: touch the heart, body and mind of your Guests, and achieve true sustainability in your business while inspiring your Team Members and ensuring they are motivated and fulfilled”. This is the worldwide “Wellbeing Style” delivered by Italy’s finest.
What kind of audience do you target your business towards?
We target investors, Spa Consultants, Heads of Wellness and Architects, to create a new and clear Wellness Identity for their guests and clients, to add the healing touch to the design and to create unforgettable Spa & Wellness Guest experiences.
We support Hotel Owners to create sustainable and innovative wellness offerings, integrating stellar customer service to meet the current industry trends.
We help Spa Directors to add depth to their projects, to improve sales performances and boost efficiency in daily operations; we teach them how to create and develop the team building talent and how to design unforgettable guest experiences. We can consult them on how to revamp an existing concept and how to develop strategies to promote and maintain happiness in the workplace.
We also target Hotel Groups, to infuse their luxury hospitality offerings with meaningful and contemporary wellness.
We work with Wellness Companies, Cosmetic Brands and Therapists, to improve and refine effectiveness and success in their desire to improve people’s lifestyles.
What is your work inspired by?
Creativity is my gift and spirituality my fuel.
The spiritual search permeates my life and gives me the ability to think in a deeper way, be mindful of and receptive to the environment I live in and people I get in touch with. This personal research allows me to develop my social intelligence and get in touch with my true talents.
I’ve learned to live in the flow, connecting the inside and outside world; I see things in perspective and when I forget it, there’s someone near me reminding to keep a vertical vision.
This kind of lifestyle has healed my life and has helped me unlock my professional potential. When I feel I can’t express my daily creative flow in my work, I focus on cooking, playing, drawing, dreaming or coaching friends and colleagues to recover my balance: being aligned and flowing with life is the most powerful state of mind and attitude we can dream of.
I also believe in the power of doing nothing, being joyfully lazy: in Italian we have a nice way to say that, “ il dolce far niente”, and it is a precious tool to reconnect with your deep self and be in the best position for your business as well.
I enjoy meeting new people who inspire my mind and fill my soul, as well as observing guests and talking to them, which also gives me valuable information. I’m blessed by being surrounded by a circle of senior healers and amazing human beings who add a sensational depth and variety to my contemplative and creative approach to life. I’m also inspired by the multi-generational working environment I’m working in today.
I’m obsessed with the experiential side of life and never stop studying, so I’m developing a rich background of knowledge that pops up unexpectedly when new connections and ideas are coming on my way.
After many years as pioneers and wellness warriors we now see that guests and investors are asking this unique approach we’ve been researching and preparing for the last 10 years.
If you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be and why?
People are the most important resource in a project, always and especially when we are speaking about wellbeing.
Having a great team or not can determine the success or the failure of a business and that means that wellness hospitality has to be a wellbeing experience both for guests and therapists in order to have extraordinary results.
I would love that every wellness property and spa, every business really, took good care of the team, investing in the working place atmosphere, in their educational journey, giving attention to what they eat and where they live to make their professional journey a nurturing business and personal experience.
Being engaged in meaningful and beautiful working projects brings to true commitment and that is the nourishing part that every job should offer. Now more than ever, the more a company can deliver that, the more can create the wonder and magic atmosphere and flow of events that bring to success.
What could your dream project look like?
I would love to be involved in the opening of a seaside Spa Hotel inspired by the Italian Riviera lifestyle of the 50ies/60ies. Or designing the concept for a Wellness Hotel for solo wellness travelers and spiritual seekers.
I’m dreaming of immersive, alluring wellbeing hotels with a sustainable soul, based on a beautiful people culture and driven by clear vision and true intention; places with a timeless charm reminding the beauty of being alive and able to make you feel the transformational power of a hotel stay, and not only for guests.
I am grateful to be actually involved, as creative Director, in some exciting projects that already met my previous desire to be part of a women only healing project and the development of an independent group of amazing Spa Hotels in one of the most dreamed regions of the world.
See here below some articles and interviews about Patrizia Bortolin and some details about the Glowing Flow retreats:
https://www.spabusiness.com/spa-business-magazine/Q-A-Patrizia-Bortolin/35583
https://hotelsmag.com/news/qa-independent-lifestyle-operator-patrizia-bortolin/
https://www.cntraveller.com/article/wellness-trends-to-know-about
https://www.brummellmagazine.co.uk/travel/ready-steady-reset-the-preidlhof-way/
