SNAPSHOT SURVEY
BY JOSH CORMAN
QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE OCTOBER 2020 l l l KEY TAKEAWAY :
WIDESPREAD SPA CLOSURES AND THE MASSIVE REOPENING
EFFORTS that took place in the summer of 2020 led ISPA to pause our usual collection of quarterly performance data via Snapshot Survey . In October , we resumed collection of that data and found that , as expected , spa performance continued to be dragged down by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic during the third quarter .
Specifically , 86 percent of all spas reported a drop in revenues from the third quarter of 2019 . The largest concentration of respondents ( 46 %) noted a year-over-year decrease of between 20 and 50 percent during that period . In response to COVID-19 , many spas have taken steps to cut costs , which almost certainly explains why spa profits were not down quite as sharply as revenues .
In fact , more than a quarter ( 27 %) of spas avoided a drop in profits compared to the same period in 2019 , though nearly half ( 48 %) reported a year-over-year decrease of at least 20 percent . A lower number of spa visits during the third quarter ( 85 percent of respondents reported a decrease in visits ) is the chief factor in these stark figures , and spa owners and operators everywhere will be hoping that occupancy restrictions can be safely lifted sooner rather than later .
85 % of respondents reported a decrease in visits .
“... nearly 100 % of our activity is from local people .”
Spa-Goer Geography
Restrictions on travel have led to some demographic shifts in who visits which types of spas , with many resort / hotel spa leaders noting that they ’ re seeing increased numbers of local guests . Here is a sampling of responses highlighting those shifts :
“ Hotel occupancy has been very low , but the hotel guests that are coming in are actually local guests looking for a quick weekend getaway , which is very different from our normal business travelers and weekend leisure guests .”
“ Because of travel restrictions , nearly 100 % of our activity is from local people . Typically less than five percent of our business comes from local guests , and we expect the ratio of local guests to become much smaller as tourists are allowed to come back to Hawaii .”
60 PULSE ■ JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021