The spa market in Brazil is robust and growing, as evidenced by the first ever Brazilian Spa Congress, held last week in conjunction with the second Medical Travel Brazil conference.  The spa congress was put together by a team headed by Brazilian Spa Association President and Buddha Spa Founder Gustavo Albanesi, with the purpose of focusing on providing information and content to the professional spa operator.  Remarked Albanesi, “We have brought in international speakers who are experts in their fields, to share trends and information on world markets that will be relevant here in Brazil.”  It is estimated that the market currently exceeds 1000 spas, and if esthetics clinics are included the amount rises exponentially to over 5k. 

The Brazilian Spa Association has already started their own version of Spa Week, providing low cost spa treatments for a two-week period as we do in the States.  In their first year, they only had 14 spas participate, but in the second edition, they sold over 10k treatments in a week, which represented an increase of 80% over the normal business level of participating spas for the prior two months.  Albanesi said “Spa week helped to provide beneficial economic results, as well as encouraging the spa-going culture, since 40% of the spa week attendees were first-time spa-goers.”

The Brazilian Spa Association has also started a digital magazine targeting spa management, and an Iphone application to help consumers find member spas.  But beyond the obvious goals of growing spa businesses, Albanesi is not forgetting to address the social aspects of this developing market.  In order to reflect the needs of the Brazilian population, and be true to the “wellness” objectives of spa marketers, the association has developed a project named “Levar Bem – Estar,” which translates to “bring well-being.”  The purpose of the project is to establish partnerships with charity missions, hospitals and handicapped & psychological support institutions and bring them basic spa therapies given by professionals whose training was funded by the association, and to bring well-being to this underserved market.

The congress began with presentations by Brazilian government officials from both the tourism and medical fields, and a lovely film clip featuring sights and sounds of Brazil, which many of us who never left Sao Paulo were grateful for!  After the official presentations, the spa group, numbering about 150, decamped to a separate room for the spa-specific programming.

Peter Anderson of Anderson & Associates in Santa Monica, CA started us off with a lecture on Financial and Profitability Analysis for Spas, noting that in order for spas to avoid being considered a hobby they need to generate positive cash flow.  Anderson provided the group with an understanding of concepts such as budgeting, revenue forecasting and yield management and showed attendees how to calculate these important management numbers.

The next topic was The Convergence of Medical and Wellness Tourism in Brazil, presented by Xellum’s Laszlo Puczko.  This was a timely discussion for this developing market, where medical tourism is still a focus.  Puczko shared that wellness tourism as an industry is twice as large as medical tourism, and they have different target markets.  Says Puczko, “Wellness-oriented clients don’t want to be around sick people, but healthy clients may still want a bit of improvement.  Wellness addresses human health in a holistic or comprehensive sense and assumes that each person will actively participate in protecting their health, in preventing diseases and will not leave all this to medication.”  Puczko also noted that while classic standard of living measures how big your house is, or how many cars you have, quality of life is qualitative; rich and healthy people may not be happy, and the happiest people in the world can be found in Africa.  Puczko noted that 78% of people say that in order to feel happy, the opportunity to travel is important, and this positions Brazil very well for a wellness market with all of the nature and beauty it has to offer.

According to Puczko, the immediate future in wellness offers a wealth of direction and concepts:

• Indigenous and natural products and ingredients
• The further development of fusion practices and treatments (Yogalates, Zoomba)
• Flexible service delivery
• Dream and sleep services
• The growth of global wellness hotels (as attested to in a later presentation by Anne Biging of Healing Hotels of the World)
• Holistic tourism products for new markets (seniors, retired adults, para-clients)
• Budget spas
• New therapies such as those involving art and animals

Puczko urged the audience to use natural resources and local and regional initiatives that are authentic and indigenous to create a “Brazilian” version of well-being, likely with elements such as dance, music, social, beach, and not just to copy what is already out there.  Brazil is already huge in medical and surgical services, but the holistic and spiritual leisure and recreation sectors have plenty of room for growth.

Trends driving consumers seeing a wellness lifestyle:

• Search for community
• Desire to downsize (simplicity)
• New media & technology
• Fitness & sports
• Fashion vs. tradition
• Ageing societies
• Growing obesity
• Obsession with self/celebrity
• Spiritual and Wellness festivals

Please stop back to the blog for more on the congress later this week.