title: Spa Goers' Repeated Visits for Health and Wellness and the Influential Factors: An Exploratory Study of the UK Spa Goers.
abstract: Dissemination of spa services across the globe and its market saturation drive demand for differentiated communication methods. This study aims to explore the influential factors on spa goers' repeated visits and their practical applications in the health and wellness spa industry. The identified factors were used as the measurement variables to examine the relation with spa goers' repeated visits. The proposed concept was tested by a mixed method combining a self-administered questionnaire and semistructured interview with 54 survey participants and 6 interviewees. It was meaningful to use a sample of the UK spa goers from the southwest region since global spa trends stem from the EU spas, and the United Kingdom is one of the market leaders. The data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, multiple logistic regression analysis, and coding process. The survey findings demonstrated that the most significant influential factor on the repeated spa visits is a memorable experience of which showed 13.7 times higher probability than the reference up-to-date facility. The details of memorable experiences were discovered throughout the interviews that include the rediscovery of self, feeling of connectedness, recharge for positive emotions, self-reward through escapism, and experience of noncommercialized local products and attractions. Therefore, using experiential marketing methods can be effective spa service marketing.
authors.affiliation: Author Affiliations: Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Myungsuk
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Donna
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Poade
authors.forename: Minsung
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: Mankyu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Choi
mesh_terms: D001452:Balneology; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D006294:Health Resorts; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D012063:Relaxation / Q000523:psychology; D006113:United Kingdom