tWo decades of data: the story of the u.s. sPa industry study
(CONtINUED FrOm PAgE 33)
“That first [Consumer Snapshot Initiative] showed
us how many men were going. There were a lot of
assumptions and anecdotes from members about
that, but we wanted to quantify it.”
— lynne mcnees, ISPA President
that PwC could bring knowledge of
the research techniques required.”
These rigorous techniques,
however, meant that the study would
have to be U.S.-only. To conduct a
study of the same rigor and method-
ological validity around the world
was functionally impossible at the
time, says McIlheney. “Ideally we
would expand the global footprint.
However, two factors encourage a
pragmatic approach. First is the cost.
Second is the lack in many territories
of easily obtainable and robust data
for compiling the key metrics, such as
total revenue and visitor numbers.”
In fact, collecting those key metrics
in the U.S. in 1999 led directly to the
creation of the Uniform System of
Financial Reporting for Spas (USFRS).
The USFRS helped standardize spas’
accounting practices so that revenue
and profit numbers would be reliable,
thereby enhancing the integrity of the
Industry Study’s data.
The study’s well-known ‘Big Five’
statistics were determined in close
consultation with ISPA members;
PwC held several focus groups at the
time to put parameters around what
the most foundational metrics should
be. Choosing such fundamental
then-isPa chairman Jane segerberg and isPa
President lynne mcnees spearheaded the
search for a research partner for the initial u.s.
spa industry study.
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metrics allowed ISPA and the spa
industry to “watch the industry grow
over time,” says McNees. Once the
scope of the Study was established,
PwC began collecting data the old-
fashioned way: via telephone.
“the other side of the coin”
The initial ISPA U.S. Spa Industry
Study was presented in 2000, and
within a few years it had become the
“defining report for the industry,” says
McIlheney. However, both ISPA and
McIlheney felt there was still a need to
cover “the other side of the coin”: spa-
goers and consumers.
By 2010, ISPA members were
clamoring for more data on who
went to spas and why they went, as
well as why certain consumers
weren’t spa-goers—such information
was critical to spa’s success during
the height of the Great Recession.
That year, ISPA again connected with
PwC to begin the Consumer Snapshot
Initiative, a new research program