Spa Business issue 2 2012 - Leisure Opportunities

PROFILE
Anyone who spends just
a few minutes talking to
Susie Ellis will know that
she’s a consummate people-person:
unfailingly
warm and courteous.
Th ey’ll also recognise how passionate she
is about the spa and wellness industry she
champions, both as president of SpaFinder
– the sector’s largest marketing and media
company – and as a founding board member
of the Global Spa & Wellness Summit
(GSWS). But if they delve just a little deeper,
they’ll also fi nd something edgier: a sharp
business mind underpinned both by pragmatism
and an ability to think laterally.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in
SpaFinder’s annual Spa Trend Report, which
has won Ellis a reputation as a soothsayer
since the fi rst one was published nine years
ago. Over the last decade, she’s frequently
been on target in identifying up-and-coming
trends, including spa lifestyle real estate
52 Read Spa Business online spabusiness.com / digital
Susie Ellis
Infl uential spa commentator Susie Ellis has an uncanny
knack for predicting the industry’s future. On the sixth
anniversary of the Global Spa & Wellness Summit she helped
pioneer, the SpaFinder president explains what drives her
RHIANON HOWELLS » CONSULTING EDITOR » SPA BUSINESS
(2005), sleep health (2007) and wellness
tourism (2009) – so much so that, today,
its publication is eagerly awaited by both the
consumer press and the industry.
Bird’s eye seat
Part of what gives Ellis her perspicacity, she
believes, is her long career in the spa industry.
She began her journey in the 70s as a fi tness
instructor at California’s Golden Door destination
spa, where she quickly progressed
into management. Aft er leaving, she worked
as a consultant and got an MBA from the
University of California Los Angeles, before
working as an assistant to two consecutive
International Spa Association presidents.
Th en, in 1995, she was recruited by Donald
Trump to open and manage his fi rst spa at
Th e Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.
By that time, she was happily married
to Pete Ellis – now SpaFinder’s chair and
CEO – who she had met at the Golden Door
(she was staff , he was a guest). In 1995, Pete
R E S EARCH
SpaFinder 2012
SPA TREND REPORT
Top 10 Global Spa Trends Forecast
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launched the pioneering online car sales and
marketing company Autobytel and when
he took it public in 1999, the couple started
investing in a number of diff erent companies
– including a New York-based travel agency
and magazine publisher called SpaFinder.
Today, SpaFinder is no longer a travel
agency, although it works with over 25,000
travel agents. Instead, it promotes spa and
wellness experiences direct to the consumer
through its website, vertical search
technology, reservation system and gift ing
programme. More than 25,000 wellness-focused
consumers visit spafi nder.com each day,
and over the last few years, the company has
also launched sister sites in the UK, France,
Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada and Japan. It’s
this global perspective, believes Ellis, that is
her other great advantage when compiling
the annual trends report. “We have a sort of
bird’s eye seat here at SpaFinder,” she says.
In fact, it was a vision of creating greater
unity in the global industry that motivated
Susie and Pete – along with a small group
of leading spa professionals – to launch the
Global Spa Summit (now the Global Spa &
Wellness Summit) in New York City six
years ago. Although many of the founding
members are still on the board, it’s
Ellis who’s been the driving force behind
the initiative and annual conference.
Shining a light
Although much of Ellis’s time is taken
up by the GSWS, she’s still the face of
SpaFinder and remains very involved
Over the past decade Ellis has frequently
been on target in predicting trends such
as lifestyle real estate (far left) in her
annual Spa Trend Report (inset)
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