Stone Waters : Future Trends

FUTURE TRENDS IN THE SPA INDUSTRY

With the booming spa business, spa opportunities for employment also grew rapidly.

Ideally, spas would want to hire from within: spas should be run by massage therapists and estheticians. Why? 

• Spas differ from hotel/hospitality management and food and beverage industry.
• Spas also differ from the beauty industry even though at the moment in North America it seems that the spa is also an extension of the beauty/hairdressing salon. 
• Spas are partially about hospitality but also, care giving, esthetics, nutrition, and preventative health in meticulously perfected environment.
• Spas are luxury escapes for clients but from the therapists’ point of view they require a significant amount of personal growth in terms of being open to new trends and flexible enough to rely on team work.
• Running a spa requires above average operational management, marketing and customer service skills

These are the main reasons why people trained in business and entering the spa industry as spa managers may not be the best managers for Spas. These are also the reasons why many massage therapists and estheticians do not feel prepared to cope with the challenges in operating a successful and financially sound spa business. To tell the truth, there are not many schools that will prepare you to become a therapist who thrives in a spa environment. You will have to allocate money to receive extracurricular training not only in therapies but also customer service, esthetics services and retail. Lack of cross training will become a real problem in the future where more and more places will define themselves as a cross marketing, esthetics-health-weight loss-nutrition-yoga venues (medical spas, health and fitness spas etc.) Whether you are coming from a complimentary health field or you are a registered massage therapist, being willing to stay open or maybe even evolve toward the medical, destination or combination spa-type-of-business as well as being aware of cross-training issues, will help you to position yourself better on the market.

International Associations

• American Spa Therapies Education and Certification Council (A.S.T.E.C.C.)
• Day Spa Association This directory will guide you to day spa facilities that take their business seriously, and are committed to bring you the best services and products that the spa industry has to offer.
  The Day Spa Association has established a set of guidelines to help you recognize what to expect from a day spa.
• International Spa Association (ISPA) The International SPA Association is a worldwide community of spa professionals, product manufacturers and service providers all striving for the same goal. The support and knowledge of our community is unmatched anywhere in the industry. Whether you are a spa professional or a spa-goer, ISPA is your proven resource.
• International Medical Spa Association Recognizing the importance of bringing together the health care and spa industries in a way that will ensure the quality of care available to consumers, medical spa industry leaders, including licensed health care professionals, spa owners, spa consultants, medical spa facility designers and product manufacturers, have come together to form The Medical Spa Association.
• National Coalition of Esthetic & Related Associations