Stenden Rangsit University, Thailand, is conducting another annual study of the global spa industry for a report that will be released in conjunction with the 18-20 September World Spa & Wellbeing Convention 2014 (WSWC).

Spa managers and directors are being invited to participate in the study, irrespective of nationality or country of work by Prantik Bordoloi, a research and module coordinator at the Thai campus of Netherlands-based Stenden Rangsit University.

All information gathered will be treated as confidential and participants will receive a copy of the complete study when released in September.

The 2013 report, in collaboration with the Thai Spa Association, revealed important spa consumer findings based on a survey of 463 current and potential spa-goers – the details of which can be found in Spa Business 2013, Issue 4 pg 86. The second part of the study consisted of a focus group with 10 spa managers, 14 interviews with spa directors and experienced spa industry professionals, as well as an online survey with 86 respondents.

The report highlighted key consumer trends, for example almost every third spa-goer gets information about a spa via word-of-mouth – proving trust is a much more important factor than advertisements and media in deciding which spa to go to.

Authentic therapies are more important to men than to women – who prioritise individualised packages and price discounts, according to last year’s study.

Operators and managers of spas agreed in 2013 that spa menus needed fine-tuning because there is often an overwhelming variety on offer which confuses consumers.

In terms of training, the spa professionals concluded that there is a strong emphasis on attitude-based hiring in the industry because attitude is the one thing that is intrinsic, and therefore difficult to teach.

The 2014 hopes to have even more respondents this year. If you are a spa director or manager – in any country, please click here or here to carry out the survey.