Shifting patterns

Espa founder Susan Harmsworth shares her experience of the changing spa landscape, in light of the global financial crisis

People are more cautious now, when it comes to how they spend their money and what they spend it on, than they were before the recession. There was an era a few years ago when some very big spas, with amazing spaces and very high budgets, were being built.

Those spas do still exist but they are much more rare and if they are still being built, you now have to justify the reason for it in a different way. Owners now want much more justification per square metre, for why something is being done and they also want more input.

That is not necessarily always a bad thing however, as it makes our industry focus. In good times, when everything is booming, you sometimes don’t look at the financials as closely as you should.

During the good years, there was an element of people being profligate with money; there was a lot of waste. Whereas now, people think harder about things and test the market more, before spending money.

Read the full feature on page 26 of the July issue of the Professional Spa and Wellness digital magazine for FREE here, or access the digital magazine by selecting your chosen platform here.