Finding Susie Ellis, a 'spa-cialist'

Susie Ellis is more than just a pretty face. Everyone goes to her for expert advice and opinion on anything and everything spa. She is the president of Spa Finder, cited by the New York Times as a milestone in the growth of the global spa industry and heralded by both Forbes.com and USA Today as the best website for spa travel. More than that, it is the world’s most prominent spa marketing, media, and research company. Ellis is also very generous with her knowledge, sharing her lecture slides with me at the recent health and wellness summit.  You may also read her insights in her blog at www.spafinder.com. 

Indeed, Ellis is recognized everywhere as the leading authority on the spa industry, including spa-related health, wellness, beauty, fitness, and lifestyle trends.  Her spa career started with a 20-year stint at the Golden Door in California. Then she became the first spa director of the Greenhouse Spa at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. She also worked under Arnold Schwarzenegger for the California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

As the visionary behind the Spa Finder’s Top 10 Trends, she became the default resource person of media for a peek into the future.  A frequent speaker in industry gatherings worldwide, her spa insights have been featured by New York Times, USA Today, Time magazine, The Daily Telegraph, and Newsweek, among many others. Her job is one of the most coveted in the world as she gets to sample spa treatments worldwide.

Health Through Water

Ellis reminds us that the word spa actually means sanitas per aquaam or health through water. It has evolved since then to mean services that promote relaxation, renewal, beauty, healing, rejuvenation, balance, and detoxification for a person’s mind, body, and spirit. “Exercise, healthy eating, breathing, detoxing, relaxing, sleeping well, meditating, finding balance, social health experiences, connecting with other people — that whole experience is what I consider to be spa,” she describes.

In a 2004 Spa Finder poll, about 90 percent positively reacted to the word spa. The words wellness, healing retreat, and hydrotherapy — in that order — came close. In comparison, only 40 percent or less reacted positively to antiaging, medical spa, medi-spa, and medical (this being the lowest score).  Ellis points out that every continent of the world has an influence on the evolvement of spas.  Fitness is from North America, waters from Europe, nature from Australia, holistic from Asia, beauty from South America, and the indigenous from Africa.

She amusingly cites the spa alphabet: Alpine wellness, American aerobics, Australian aboriginal, Balinese boreh, Brazilian wax, British health farm, Chinese medicine, Dead Sea salts, Egyptian oils, French thalassotherapy, Finnish sauna, German kur, Hawaiian lomi-lomi, Hungarian mud, Indian ayurveda, Italian fango, Japanese onsen, Japanese shiatsu, Javanese lulur, Mexican temescal, Philippine hilot, Russian steam, Swedish massage, Swiss shower, Thai massage and Turkish hamam.

Worldwide in 2007, the spa industry was worth US$255 billion, of which $47 billion was contributed by core spa industry revenues. The balance is from spa-related hospitality, tourism, and real estate. Add beauty, nutrition, health, and fitness and you have a market exceeding $1 trillion. Last year alone, $13 billion was invested in the industry that employed 1.2 million workers. US leads the pack in earnings with $12 billion, followed by Japan with half, and Germany with a third.  France, Italy, UK, and China make up the top 7 countries in the number of spas. The Philippines ranks 49th globally with 143 spas generating $30 million.

There are 20,700 spas in North America generating $ 14 billion and employing 307,000 staff. Europe has 22,600 spas with $18 billion and 442,000 workers. Asia-Pacific has 21,600 spas, chalking up $11 billion with 363,000 workers. Latin America and the Carribean have 5,400 spas, $3 billion, and 83,000 workers. Africa has 390 spas, $.3 billion, and 7,000 on the payroll while the Middle East has 1,000 spas, $.7 billion, and 21,000 staff.

Why spa?

Why do people go to a spa? Ellis says that half of the respondents go to reduce and relieve stress. Thirty-eight percent go to soothe sore joints/muscles; 31 percent go to feel good about themselves; 28 percent go to maintain their emotional/mental health while 22 percent pay to improve their appearance. One/fifth also cites overall wellness as a stimulus for going to a spa.

From the above, it is easy to understand why men also go to spas. “Health and wellness is the driving force of the modern spa. Yoga, exercise, meditation, and stress-reduction treatments dominate spa menus, all to foster a healthy mind-body-spirit connection,” notes Ellis. 

The spa influence is even evident in the new Zen look of home architecture. Gardens, bedrooms, and facades take their inspiration from the destination spas. Lately, the bathroom is the focus of attention. “People were starting to ask, where can I buy this showerhead; where can I buy this tub?” says Ellis. “But it’s more than the bathroom. It’s about sanctuary.”

Ellis encourages her readers though to go beyond the fuzzy slippers and scented candles for a home spa experience. Exercise, healthy eating, relaxation, and therapy should be integral parts of home life, she stresses. Space should be set aside for movement and exercise, for meditation and quiet. The kitchen should focus on healthful food, with fresh herbs on pots and organic produce in the crisper.

“If you have addressed all five senses in a very supportive way, you’ll then experience what we call the sixth sense,” she adds. “It’s a spiritual transformation, where we gain some insights and something shifts within you.”

Spa In Medical Tourism

While working on her Manila presentation, she pondered on why people would travel to another country to obtain health care.  “Lower costs, quicker access, better quality care, and more advanced technologies,” are some of the more prevalent reasons, she points out.  

Spas are naturally linked to medical tourism because the patients seek a comfortable and healing respite before and after the hospital procedure. “Spas are the perfect place to help people prepare for surgery as well as recover from it — physically, mentally, and spiritually,” Ellis opines.  While individually prompted before, the advent of insurance companies reimbursing procedures done abroad may begin encouraging medical travel, she adds.

Ellis lauds the Philippines for bringing together health or medical practitioners and spa or wellness experts on a round table discussion for a more integrated collaboration. “It was really heartening to see all of us dialogue together with mutual respect for each other and what we do,” she says with a smile.

Benefits for both rich and poor countries are aplenty for those with robust medical tourism industries. She says “a country such as India or the Philippines, both of which have great medical doctors, knows that many of its doctors will end up working overseas because of greater income opportunities.  If good paying jobs existed in their own country, these doctors would more likely stay home.”

Welcome The Hospa

“Each hospital we visited (in Manila) had new buildings under construction — they are all getting ready for an influx of international medical tourists. All four hospitals have a Wellness Department; one combined wellness and aesthetics into a single department called Wellness & Aesthetics, and another had a small outsourced spa and salon accessible from its lobby. Most of the hospitals had some kind of concierge service which could arrange massages, facials, hair and nail care for patients upon request,” reports Ellis to her blog readers. 

She gushes about her encounter with Samuel D. Bernal MD, PhD, JD, MBA at the Medical City. Dr. Bernal is a physician, lawyer, molecular biologist, and an expert in regenerative mnedicine. He practices at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles but also works in various hospitals in Manila. 

“This is why the idea of spa is gaining a higher profile among hospitals and hospital staff. Executive physicals, aesthetic medicine, and stem cell banking all work well together in terms of people’s participation while they are well — not sick. Spa does the same. And because spa brings with it an ambiance and a built-in positive connotation — and maybe even a bit of sexiness for marketing — it is an ideal vehicle for the wellness aspect of hospitals of the future,” says Ellis.

The vision of a HoSpa (or hospital spa) is indeed unfolding as Ellis herself excitedly announces that it was reported that Donna Karan donated $850,000 to the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York to combine Eastern and Western healing methods by bringing yoga teachers to work with non-terminal patients. “An area of the ninth floor cancer ward will be remodeled, using feng shui principles, and nurses will be trained in relaxation techniques,” she says.

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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph.