At the airport waiting to board for my Bali trip, going to the Global Spa Summit (GSS). The “spirit” of the Global Spa Summit (GSS) is one of shared purpose rather than individual gain. It is a willingness to put aside our competitive egos and personal business goals while we join together and spend time shaping the future of the spa and wellness industries.

Designed to be a high-level gathering of top industry executives, the invitation- only GSS brings together decision makers from around the world. Everyone contributes his or her time and expertise, as well as resources to help fund the Summit and make it a success. I am on the board and has been heavily involved in all research this year, together with Mary Tabacchi, professor from Cornell.

Reading through some of the research to be released at the summit (and yes, will let you all take part of it!), one thing that has come through on the consumer research is the enormous growth of sites such as “Group On”, where it has come up on the top 3 places of how people seek spa experiences on the net.

My question is how good it is for the actual spa? I just had a recent personal experience at my hairdresser, where I almost felt tricked when I paid full price and the person next to me only paid 40% of the price, purchasing her deal at GroupOn. I think that if the business are to offer heavily discounted deals on the net, it should be something that guests can’t normally buy. May it be a treatment, en experience, bathing experience or similar, and it is only a one off. Otherwise I am afraid that we sell ourselves short. What will beis quality, that we show ourselves sooooo good that people are willing to pay full price coming back.

Well, would love to hear your comments on this, it is going to be very important for us either way the coming years, as people are loving it.

//Anna