US spa industry leaders were honoured at the Washington Spa Alliance’s (WSPA) fifth Annual Symposium last month, with the inauguration of the Spa Hall of Fame. Mary Bemis – the Alliance’s co-founder and Symposium chair – outlined the significance of the event in an exclusive Thought Leader column for Spa Opportunities.

Thought Leader: Mary Bemis, co-founder and Symposium chair of WSPA

The Washington Spa Alliance’s fifth Annual Symposium

I am very proud to report that spa history was made in Washington, DC, on 17 March, when the Washington Spa Alliance (WSPA) gathered for its fifth Annual Symposium at the National Press Club. A highlight of the day’s activities, Mary-Elizabeth Gifford, pro-bono curator, announced the opening of the first-ever Spa Hall of Fame.

Americans increasingly turn to the spa community to learn about diet and exercise, the benefits of plant-based diets, to redefine ideas of beauty and wellbeing, and to learn techniques of mindfulness and preventive medicine,” noted Dr Brent Bauer, MD, director of the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program and Rejuvenate at the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program.

“With the founding of the Spa Hall of Fame, spa comes of age,” said Bauer.

A list of Class of 2015 inductees can be found here.

Gathered to salute these spa giants were the leaders and presidents of the regional spa associations from across the US. As a cofounder of the Washington Spa Alliance (WSPA) and the Symposium chair, I’d been hard at work on this special initiative. It had long been my hope to one day bring together all of the regional spa leadership in the States – in one room in our nation’s capital.