The numbers from the American Hotel and Lodging Association are sobering. Many of us in the resort and hotel spa sector have come to think we are in an endless cycle of growth. The reality is starkly different and uglier. AHLA reports that today just 5% of hotels have on-site spas that include dedicated treatment rooms. That is down from 17% in 2012.

More likely will close.

And yet we also hear that we are in the midst of a multi-billion-dollar wellness boom. Some $500 billion gets spent on wellness annually.

What's going on? Why are many hotels and resorts closing their spa operations? The reason is simple: they aren't making money, at least they are not returning the desired profits. That's hard to imagine - a well-managed spa throws off a gusher of black ink - but I have personally seen it when, usually, there is one room (sometimes a former office, sometimes a very small guest room) that is designated as "the spa." From there, everything is catch as catch can. Management, marketing, staffing all happen on the fly.

No wonder profits are a chimera.

It takes discipline - a plan - to make money with a resort spa.

It also takes a bigger picture of what spa entails than many people had even a decade ago. Back then spa seemed a straight road to easy money.

No more. The old way of defining what a spa provides is a dead end.

Success lies in the direction of a bigger, broader concept.

And every spa operator needs to ask: are we keeping pace with the changing marketplace or are we heading towards oblivion?

If you are where you were in 2007, be afraid. Even one-time industry leaders need to be asking how they are keeping pace with an evolving marketplace.

Trust me: the data persuasively shout that if you are not changing your spa operation you are on the fast track to extinction.

Back up to that $500 billion wellness spend. Yes, some of that money goes to traditional spa but I think a recent Travel Weekly headline sums up exactly what is going on: "Beyond Pampering."

Spa is and will be about pampering - and nowadays that is a focus with a low ceiling. Some people want to be pampered, period, but many, many more want a whole lot more and that is where wellness comes in.

Increasingly what we see are guests with a hunger for a more layered wellness experience. Do they want a pampering spa experience? You bet. But many also want instruction in advanced fitness techniques, in the latest nutritional findings, also sleep research, and they as well want camaraderie as they go out on mountain hikes, perfect their asanas in yoga classes, and deepen their meditation practice.

With an America that is increasingly obese or overweight - two in three adults - wellness often also means a weight-loss program and guests want to know if this is a program where they can get back on track in terms of weight.

What you can't do - and we all know some who have tried - is half-heartedly glue "wellness" and "fitness" activities onto a resolutely traditional pampering spa and believe that guests will buy it. Let me save you time: they won't. Go into this with gusto and commitment - that's how to win because the wellness movement is about finding new, exciting ways to live better, more mindfully, with more health.

Add in - this is crucial - uniquely local elements. A wellness retreat in the Himalayas in India should be markedly different from one in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains of Arizona. Cookie-cutter blandness won't work here. Go local, go authentic, get real. That's the path to wellness success.

Getting there won't be easy. There's quackery. There are time-limited fads. There is silliness to avoid.

Learn by trial and error - and by listening to your guests. They will tell you what is working and what isn't.

Is this worth the bother? The Global Wellness Institute projects that wellness tourism will exceed $800 billion in 2020.

Do the math. You can cling to a spa that likely will see shrinking profits - or you can expand into a dynamic wellness mode where profits and guest benefits are abundant.

That choice looks easy.

Babs Harrison
Babs Harrison + Partners
Babs Harrison + Partners