SEARCHING FOR THE NEW SPA

Amid challenges of the economic slump, spagoers are searching for new experiences. Pampering is passé. The action words are wellness and prevention.

Examples include Germany's Brenner's Park-Hotel in Baden-Baden, which has one of Europe's top medical spas attached to a luxurious center for beauty and fitness. Brenner's PREVENT program combines comprehensive examinations with personalized therapies, nutrition, and fitness. And the Swiss Clinique La Prairie, run by doctors, integrates a full-service spa with medical checkups.

In Florida, the Pritikin Longevity Center and Spa relocated to Miami on the site previously occupied by the elegant Saturnia Spa within a golf-oriented Marriott resort. For the first time, the Pritikin program will be covered by Medicare in 2010.

On the beauty front, anti-aging treatments and products that prevent problems and avoid costly, invasive actions will be the focus of leading resort and day spas. With a new generation of baby boomers turning 60, look for a new breed of health retreat - Silver Spa. No longer geriatric, spas for seniors are going upscale. Integrating yoga and fitness classes, acupuncture, nutrition, workshops, fertility programs, around the core spa mode, Exhale MindBodySpa has 15 day spa locations from Los Angeles to the Caribbean.

Travel to exotic destinations has been fueled by interest in ancient healing therapies. Venerable hammams like the 16th-century Çemberlita in Istanbul, Turkey, have new incarnations at Dubai's One and Only Royal Mirage, and Morocco's La Mamounia. The trend hit Las Vegas: Drift Spa at Palms Place, and Mandarin Oriental in CityCenter, recently rolled out hammams where you are soaped, scrubbed, and massaged. Trump Soho in Manhattan (slated for early 2010) will boast separate hammams for men and women. And expect Turkish hammams in both the Traymore and Epic Hotels in Miami.

As a new wave of cruise ships debuts, spas at sea are getting bigger and offering services once found only at medical spas. Steiner now has licensed specialists aboard ships that offer Botox and teeth whitening.

Wellness tourism allies spas, hospitals, and the travel industry. Susie Ellis, president of SpaFinder, sees more international travel for medical services. Examples: Malo Clinic Spa at the Venetian Macau-Resort Hotel in China, an integrative wellness center offering both comprehensive medical treatments and executive health checkups (six operating theaters, a staff of 50 doctors, etc.) with a full spa featuring 100 spa therapists. The new Mandarin Oriental Sanya resort on China's tropical Hainan Island has a traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy and resident shaman. Established medical/wellness destinations getting a new look: Kurotel in Brazil. Champney's in the UK, Rancho La Puerta in Mexico, Chiva-Som in Thailand.

Still to come: Moveable spa adventures at Joan Lunden's Camp Reveille, combining traditional women's "summer camp" with spa, set to travel to destination/resort spas across the U.S. Canada welcomes Sparkling Hill Resort and Wellness Hotel, opening April 2010, a spectacular $100 Million British Columbia destination. And a new brand of day spa is in the works at Urban Outfitters.

Having documented spa trends for two decades, my search takes me back to China this spring, where I will join Asia Spa Institute founder Theresa Chew at the China Spa Show in Guangzhou, then visit the Mission Hills Resort, new ESPA in Shanghai, Ritz-Carlton Sanya, and new destinations. Publication of my new book "Spectacular Spas: Asia/Pacific" is expected by the end of 2010.

What remains constant is our need for release from stress. Putting a price on feeing well is difficult; the spa experience is more needed than ever.