Like SpaFinder, California’s Golden Door has faced plagiarism – an industry-wide issue that needs addressing
Ellis (front) was a fi tness instructor at Golden Door in the 70s and feels her long career in spas greatly helps with predicting trends
“I noticed that shining a light on an emerging trend would accelerate it... so now if I think a trend will have a negative industry impact I won’t include it”
in the business – especially in the annual trends report. “We do three studies a year at SpaFinder, one with consumers, one with the industry and one with travel agents, which gives us a lot of information,” she says. “We can also see from our website what’s trend- ing. Finally, we have a team who travel to spas all over the world, and I count on their input. Personally, I always keep a notebook on me to jot down trends to track.” What sets SpaFinder’s report apart from
others is the focus on emerging trends – such as wellness gaming on the 2011 list (see p80) – rather than established ones. “To make those sorts of predictions, you have to do a fair amount of research,” she says “and that means reading a wide variety of news- papers and publications, going to [non-spa] conferences like TED and TEDMED, and talking to many people around the world about what’s going on.” As a result of such intense interest, the
list is no longer only identifying emerging trends – it’s also driving them. Ellis says: “I noticed maybe four or fi ve years ago that shining a light on an emerging trend would
SPA BUSINESS 2 2012 ©Cybertrek 2012
oſt entimes accelerate that trend. So now one of the things I consider is what’s good for the industry… and if I think a trend will have a negative impact, I won’t include it.” Another reason a trend might not make the cut is that it’s too early in its evolution.
“One that didn’t make it this year is the trend for spas to make their facilities and programmes available to the disabled,” she says. “It’s a small niche, but it’s increasing and it really dovetails into one of our trends from last year, which was pain relief for the ageing, so we’re watching that.” A third consideration, says Ellis, is making
sure they’re consumer-friendly. “T at hap- pened this year with employee wellness [the trend for corporate wellness programmes],” she says. “T at’s a very interesting opportunity for the industry, but we didn’t feel consumers could relate to it yet; it’s too soon. So we put it in at number 11 as a bonus trend.”
An ethical challenge
T e popular success of the SpaFinder Spa Trend Report has inevitably led to it being widely quoted in both the consumer and
industry press, as well as referenced by other experts. Yet while this kind of publicity is good for both SpaFinder and the industry, there is also a downside to the report’s ubiq- uity. “A few years ago, we started seeing other people in the industry putting together their own trends lists,” says Ellis. “And we noticed that many of these lists were basically our list. It would maybe have a slightly diff erent name or a slightly diff erent order, a little bit of cosmetic work to make it look new. But it really wasn’t new. “T ere’s a lot of work involved in compil-
ing our trends report, so a couple of years ago we decided we had to step up and start protecting our copyright. Since then, our lawyers have sent out a fair number of let- ters to people [trying to pass off the trends we identifi ed as their own].” Plagiarism is not a problem unique to
SpaFinder, however. According to Ellis, it is an industry-wide issue, with numerous spa operators, consultants and suppliers apparently believing that the creative work of others is theirs for the taking. As an exam- ple, she cites the case of the Golden Door
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