The initial phase of an innovative Spa Data project for the UK and Ireland has been launched.
Managed by industry experts, Spa Life International Ltd, the new project will provide spa owners and operators with accurate and reliable market intelligence across the entire spa market.
Created in response to demand within the spa industry, the first stage of the project will be free so that as many spas as possible can take part.
Spa properties generate millions of bytes of data every day and almost all of it is wasted
The founder of the project, Andrew Hammond explains "We receive a constant stream of enquiries about the industry; questions like 'How many spas are there in the country?', 'How many therapists are employed in the spa sector?', 'What is the value of the spa industry?' but other than a few directory sites and promotional companies focussing on the sector, there are no organisations dedicated to providing such fundamental market intelligence. However, spa properties generate millions of bytes of data every single day and almost all of it is wasted. Who knows what may be hidden in that data?"
According to Hammond, it's time that the industry began to collaborate and share information for the benfit of all involved, so the Spa Data Project has been created with two clear objectives. Primarily, to provide a secure platform for spas to confidentially share their data in order to generate comparative performance metrics vs other participating properties, and secondly to quantify the size and scope of the spa market in the UK and Ireland, with separate databases for each.
Data analysis guides the strategic direction of entire industries, but sadly spa is not one of them
The concept of the Spa Data Project was announced at this year's annual Spa Life Convention when Hammond took to the stage to emphasise the impact of data on our lives. With reference to a number of organisations - from blue chip companies to entertainment and medical services - he demonstrated some of the myriad benefits data, or more specifically, the analysis of data, has delivered for businesses and consumers alike.
"Data analysis guides the strategic direction of entire industries - and even governments" stated Hammond, "yet despite these obvious benefits, spa is not one of these industries and we believe that it is time this changed. All spa operators who agree with this premise are invited to join the Spa Data project".
Ongoing research conducted by Spa Life International has led to the development of a significant database of spas across the UK and Ireland and all properties have been sent individual invitations to participate in the spa data project which can be accessed via a unique link in each email invitation.
Spa managers can also participate in the spa data project by accessing the on-line survey at www.spa-data.uk to validate their property before submitting their data in five separate sections.
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