New Worldwide Spa Trends

In the summer of 2002 this article, “New Spa Trends” ran in the Pulse Magazine, an ISPA publication. Raoul Andrews Sudre wrote this article which echoed similar nuances from an earlier article (Sense of balance, Skin Inc., 1999) he penned. He saw the spa shifting away from a medical environment towards a more holistic approach utilizing an East meets West philosophy. This article was one of the first “visionary” moments from Raoul as this series shows. His foresight into emerging trends continues to be echoed through countless publications across the industry.

http://aspenspamanagement.com/NewWorldwideSpaTrends.pdf

The Sense of Balance, 1999

In July of 1999, Skin Inc. published this comprehensive and visionary article written by Raoul Andrews Sudre, Aspen Spa Management’s Senior Advisor. This article spoke of spa themes utilizing the six senses, Feng Shui philosophies and creating ambiance at a time when many salons were adding a room in the back for massage or facials and calling their salon a “spa”. This article gives great insight into achieving a higher level of sophistication in design while incorporating not just the physical attributes of the spa experience but all the sensory ones as well. What is impressive about this article written in ‘99 is it speaks of a holistic approach of personalization and customizing the spa experience; a very necessary trend that the industry appears to have overlooked as a whole. With “chain” experiences moving into the spa environment creating a cookie cutter approach, this article may be more relevant now more than ever.

http://aspenspamanagement.com/SkinInc_The_Sense_of_Balance.pdf

While undergoing our annual
“Spring Cleaning” and making room for new projects we stumbled on a
treasure chest of archived articles written by Raoul
Andrews Sudre and published through his
lengthy career. We noticed countless articles that have shaped many award
winning spas, forecasted trends we have watched occur and visions yet to
manifest. What is awe inspiring is the articles are still highly relevant to
new comers and more so to those who discounted these trends. There are articles
on design, holistic approaches (before anyone really knew what the word meant),
Wellness not Spa, Spa cuisine, Spas for
Children and many more edgy subjects that executives still shy away from but
definitely STILL need to hear. These articles provide countless tips that have
been implemented and in most cases proven to be financially beneficial in the
long term.

We are doing our best to
pick only ten articles (which is difficult
given the many articles published). We have selected articles that display the visionary
innovations, Raoul Andrews Sudre has brought
to our industry for over 50 years and is still bringing. His articles are in
your face, poignant and they do not sugar coat
what we need to hear as industry professionals. He speaks of service standards,
common mistakes that bridge into the areas of the hotelier as well as small
business owners.