Derived some claim from the Latin verb spargere, to pour forth or the acronym s.p.a., referring to salus per aqua (health through water), the historical association of spa with water is undeniable. Sadly, over the years, the word spa has been slowly but surely separated from its connection with water.
Spa now comes in many forms. The 2007 Global Spa Economy Report summarized the categories of spa as day/club/salon spas (63% of total spa types), hotel/resort spas (16%), other spas (13%), medical spas (11%), and destination/health resorts (1%).
For the purposes of this economic report, spas were defined as establishments that 'promote wellness through the provision of therapeutic and other professional services aimed at renewing the body, mind and spirit' with no restriction on size or combination of treatments, as previously used for other surveys.
No mention of water.
Of course, some spas (mostly in the lowest percentage category above) are naturally endowed with seemingly unlimited mineral waters because of their location. But, for all spas (and all places where humans gather) water must be available. It is an essential ingredient for life, yet we often don't give its source and flow a moment's consideration.
Spa, in its original water-based meaning, could help give us back our reverence for water. Perhaps the dilution of this word is simply following suit with the loss of our appreciation and valuing of water. Perhaps, by reversing this trend, we could help restore health to our water.
Here is a summary from the Global Spa Summit website that looks at what the key movers and shakers in the industry consider to be the number one problem they face. Environment/Sustainability comes in equal third (with Staff training) out of nine categories. Labor shortages is number one.
I'd like to see Environment/Sustainability at number one and have it presented in such a way that Labor shortages would never be an issue - good quality people who long to be in service to people and planet and training schools that promote that naturally following. This isn't what is happening. (But perhaps President Obama's job creation program might consider this.)
Earlier this month, Susie Ellis of SpaFinder Insider posted to her blog (Susie's Spa Blog) a Spa Trends 2008 report card. She was looking back at trends predicted for last year and noted that most were 'right on' but two were not. These two were of particular interest to me.
The expansion of spa real estate (communities built around spa facilities) faltered because of the 'developing negative economic climate' Susie noted. And the increase in various water and heat experiences was compromised, or in Susie's words ' eco-friendly practices trumped it'.
If you've been following Vision Spa Retreat's blog, you'll know that I'm interested in developing community around spa and putting the water back into spa. The difference is that I'm talking about doing this on the basis of a set of values and view of sustainability that much of the spa world may have abandoned.
It is an idea that is challenging to articulate, since it is largely an instinctive one. In the face of the big business that the spa industry has become, I suspect that it may seem naive at best, foolish at worst. And yet, I persist because I believe that we need to review and revise the ways we see our world, spa included.
I'm interested in spa, not as an industry but as a cultural indicator. The fact that it is a growing industry may mean something far more significant than an opportunity to make money.
- Why do people want to 'live' in a spa-type setting,
- Why do they go to spas in the first place, and
- Are they are getting what they seek?
What can we learn, by looking at spa trends, about our human needs; and is there a way we can bring these needs into alignment with those of the planet upon which we depend. Eco-friendly practices ought to come naturally to us but they don't when we separate ourselves from nature. And for humans to live alongside nature in our growing numbers is increasingly problematic.
It is true that good quality water is in increasingly short supply and that our use of this resource continues to be incredibly wasteful. The economics of water use is an issue fraught with misconceptions and misrepresentations that are interfering with our ability to manage our water use well, as David Zetland of Aguanomics blog is valiantly reporting.
The problem, as I see it, is that we've forgotten how important water is to life on earth - how to view and value it. We've forgotten in the same way regards many of the natural resources we make use of. Our economic systems are disengaged from nature and on such a scale as to be incomprehensible to most of us.
Economic growth begins to fit the metaphor of metastasizing cancer. How can we recover from this? By injecting more money (chemotherapy) into the system to keep it going while pushing aside the source of it's sickness? Or by reexamining our values and beliefs about life, and about water.
Self-sustaining spa
What if we were to bring our attention, efforts, and funds, back to our local settings? By adopting permaculture principles (local resource conserving/ recycling/ replenishing), we can rebuild our connection with the natural world and create a far more sustainable culture.
How we source water, what we put into it, and where it goes after we have 'used' it are important questions. A self-sustaining system that cleans and recycles water within the system is not beyond the bounds of possibility with current technology; besides which, it is beautifully demonstrated in the natural world.
[How permaculture and spa culture can meet will be addressed in a future blog post here.]
The Global Spa Economy Report concluded that the global spa industry generated a total economic impact of US$374bn for the world economy in 2007 alone. The report creators argue that this should encourage governments to give the industry far greater attention than it has previously received.
The report took into consideration core (e.g. operations, investments, media), enabled (e.g hospitality, tourism, spa-related real estate) and associated (e.g. wellness, beauty and fitness products) categories of this industry. They talked about the ripple effect this had on other industries.
Can we imagine a spa industry that has something more than an economic motivator? A spa culture that models personal, communal, and planetary health? Spa with water flowing from its heart. I'm hoping so, since if not it is possible then the word 'spa' no longer applies to my own dream for change.
Aside: It's worth noting here that not everyone considers water to have healing properties (as implied in my concept of spa) .... see 'Skeptic on Healing waters' by Joe Nickell for an interesting historical account which may or may not make his point. Explore the right-hand side bar for my viewpoint.
