The Asian Pacific Spa and Wellness Coalition has released a White Paper after its Round Table held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in March 2019.

The APSWC White Paper seeks to give guidance to industry stakeholders on issues faced by the industry, current and future, and includes topics including empowering therapists, how energy-based therapies can add to the bottom line, the impact of influencers, and how to form successful partnerships.

Penned from the collective comment and input of industry leaders from 21 countries, the paper is targeted to help all stakeholders, industry and government.

“The release of this paper reflects the ability of the APSWC to bring together key leaders with the singular objective of facing up to industry home truths,” said Andrew Jacka, chair of the APSWC. “The paper is not created simply to validate the discussions, but rather to be a catalyst for action once the key issues and the steps to be taken are identified.”

The Asia Pacific region has over 46,000 spas and almost 26,000 hot springs, generating a combined annual revenue in excess of US$58bn, and a combined workforce of over 2,000,000 people (spas almost 900,000; hot springs 1.2M), the white paper reports, based on numbers from the Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2018.

Based on the above, the report posits that the average spa has 19 employees and generates US$545,000 in annual revenue, with China, Japan, India, South Korea and Thailand collectively accounting for 71 per cent of the spa operators and spa revenues in the region.

The next AWPSC will be held in Da Nang, Vietnam, in March 2020.