Topaz Consulting – the company responsible for the research behind the inaugural Spa Industry Survey Report for Great Britain and Ireland – has launched a new website.

The website will be dedicated to providing information about the UK’s growing spa market and follows the report, which provided a detailed study of how spas operate and was published by the Spa Business Association (SpaBA) and tourism marketing body VisitBritain earlier this year.

Director of Topaz, Mike Fitch, said: “The UK and Ireland spa industry is generally recognised to be undergoing a boom, with public interest at an all-time high.”

Suki Kalirai, chair of SpaBA, added: “We welcome this initiative to begin the process of providing valuable information about this fantastic industry, including how it is growing and what barriers we need to remove to continue that growth.”

The Spa Industry Survey Report found that the UK and Ireland spa sector had annual sales growth of almost 30 per cent.

According to the report, in 2003, year on year sales growth was 26 per cent and in 2004 it increased to 28 per cent. The main revenue drivers were found to be both spa and beauty treatments. Day spa packages and retail sales, although key to a facility’s offering, accounted for a relatively low proportion of sales.

The survey of 102 UK and Ireland facilities and performance data collated will now be used to identify a series of standard benchmarks for the spa industry. Details: www.spa-research.co.uk