Disappointing. Informative. Those are the two words I would use to describe my experience earlier this week at the Spa and Resort Expo and Conference here in NY City at the Javitz Center. The show room floor was less than inspiring due to the fact that few spa product or service companies were exhibiting. I
‘Spas’ and ‘Medical Tourism’ Two Booming Industries With Strikingly Parallel Paths and Issues By Susie Ellis, President of SpaFinder Inc. – the world’s largest spa media, marketing and gifting company Am currently attending the 3rd annual Medical Tourism Conference in LA. While I will summarize the very latest information in an upcoming blog, I thought
Learning from a winner in Medical Tourism – Bumrungrad International Hospital, Thailand Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand is the largest hospital in the world treating international patients. Bumrungrad looks like a 5 star hotel and gives people confidence and super service. (my experience also) Bumrungrad takes care of over 400,000 international patients yearly. Over 1 million
Attended two different events in Sao Paulo, Brazil last week. 1. The Medical Travel Meeting Brazil – where I spoke on Spas and Wellness Tourism 2. Beauty Fair (and spa conference) which I will tell you about in a future blog. I tweeted somewhat comprehensively from the Medical Travel Meeting for those who want the
Last Thursday I had my first “adult spa camp” experience. Joan Lunden (of Good Morning America fame) invited my colleague Sallie, COO of SpaFinder, and I to join her and 140 other women at her yearly Camp Reveille in Maine. I haven’t been to camp since I was 13 or 14, but vaguely remember enjoying
One of the goals of this year’s Global Spa Summit (GSS) , held in Istanbul, Turkey in May, was to look beyond our industry for fresh ideas and inspiration. So early on, the board of the GSS decided to invite a futurist. Edie Weiner immediately came to mind. She is a prominent futurist known for “saying
Anitra Brown, from Spas.About.com emailed me a few days ago saying she noticed I hadn’t been blogging as often lately (or tweeting for that matter) and wondered if everything was ok. Well, the answer is ‘yes’ things are ok – now – and thanks for noticing that I was out-of-action for a while. In brief
I was in Bangkok a few weeks ago (when the Red Shirts who were demonstrating still looked more like a Sunday parade) attending the Asia Pacific Spa and Wellness Coalition (APSWC). Since I usually take pretty comprehensive notes at conferences (keeps me awake and alert), I have selected some points I found particularly interesting, surprising,
Just returned from a spa trip to Asia. First stop – Tokyo for a SpaFinder Japan press conference. Yoriko Soma, our partner in Japan, hosted a lovely event honoring recipients of the Crystal Awards for top spas in Japan. Consumers voted these the top 10: 1. The Peninsula Spa by ESPA Tokyo 2. The Ritz
By Susie Ellis, SpaFinder Insider Thought you might enjoy this article, “Istanbul’s Booming Spa Culture Is Revisiting Old Turkish Bathhouse Rituals” for your weekend reading! Jayda Uras who is quoted in this Wall Street Journal article just sent me the link and I am delighted to share it with you right away so you will
By Susie Ellis, SpaFinder Insider. First things first. I just returned from attending the very creative TED Active conference in Palm Springs, CA. To say it was inspiring would be an understatement. Rather, for me (and I think many others who attended) TED was a game-changer. While I will explain what I mean by that
by Susie Ellis, SpaFinder Insider. Just returned from the Medical Tourism Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Organized by the University of the Incarnate Word, it was well-run, insightful, and I learned a great deal. Dr. David Viquist and his dean are the visionaries behind positioning their university at the forefront of medical tourism research. Before