Local business leaders attend International Onsen Summit
Two Hot Springs business owners represented the United States during the inaugural International Onsen Summit in Beppu City, Japan, in May.
Anthony Taylor and Bob Kempkes, two of the owners of Quapaw Baths & Spa LLC, attended the three-day summit, which focused on the economic development, health, and environmental implications of natural thermal springs, according to a news release.
Onsen is the Japanese word for “hot spring” but also extends to cover bathing facilities and inns situated around springs.
“It was a bigger deal than we thought when we went and we were shocked to find out that we were the only people from the United States there,” Kempkes said.
Taylor and Kempkes participated in a panel on tourism, presenting information about Hot Springs’ natural amenities to more than 1,000 attendees.
According to the release, the summit included an elaborate traditional Japanese feast, featuring Taiko drumming and Kagura dance performances. It concluded with a formal declaration vowing to continue sharing and promoting exchanges to further develop hot spring resources.
Taylor and Kempkes said one of the biggest differences in how people across the world utilize thermal water is the medicinal use.
“The European model is a lot different than ours; it’s kind of like the historic model of Hot Springs, where doctors can still prescribe thermal bathing treatments and the medical insurance will pay for it,” Kempkes said.
Taylor said the two visited with a man from Vichy, France, who has five hotels and three spas based around the Vichy springs.
“He has people who are prescribed three weeks of treatments. They’re sent to his hotel, his spa,” he said.
The approach to bath houses and onsen is very traditional, he added.
“The sexes go in separately to these facilities. … It’s a ritual where they cleanse themselves first, scrub down with suds, and then they don’t spend that much time in the actual hot water,” Taylor said. “A lot of people apparently do it on their way to or from work. It’s just part of their daily ritual.”
The onsen summit, they said, was really an opportunity for the Japanese
people to learn ways to build tourism around the thermal springs. Seen as more of a practical use, Taylor and Kempkes said Japan has seen an increase in visitors to the springs.
“The Japanese were trying to get feelers out to different people with spas and thermal water facilities to get some better ideas of how they could improve tourism to their areas,” Kempkes said. “We have people at the Quapaw that are there all afternoon getting in and out, but this is a fairly quick thing. I think they spend more time preparing themselves than they actually do in the water. They’re thinking they’re starting to get more visitors from across the world and they’re trying to figure out how to market to those and what they need to provide.”
Taylor said they learned of a wide array of uses for thermal waters, including Iceland’s Blue Lagoon.
“What was most interesting to me about that was that it first started as a geothermal energy project and then they made a little lagoon off of it,” he said, adding the artificially made lagoon has become world famous for people looking to bathe in its very hot water.
Kempkes said that the Blue Lagoon has a high silica base which is what gives it its very blue color and makes it best for cosmetics.
“There’s just so many different facets of what you can do when you have the water,” Taylor said of the various industries that thrive on thermal water around the world. “You have to have the water and Hot Springs has very, very special water.”