Measuring spa-goers’ preferences: A conjoint analysis approach

• Hong Kong visitors’ preferences on a combination of spa attributes are identified.
• Spa users are ready to pay a higher price for a better service.
• Therapist qualification, price, and level of privacy are important in spa booking.
• Therapist qualification and branded spa products are important for Chinese visitors.
• Business travelers are price-sensitive regarding spa products and services.

The spa market has been growing tremendously in the Asia-Pacific region. Besides its growth potential in the tourism industry, spas are becoming important revenue centers for hotels and resorts. Despite the enormous growth and potential of the spa market, the preferences of spa-goers are overlooked. The aim of this research is thus to fill this gap in theory and practice by spa-goers’ preferences based on their preferred combination of spa attributes. The study is exploratory in nature and adopts a conjoint approach to analyze the preferences of the spa-goers. The findings reveal that mid-level prices, a high level of therapist qualifications, a high level of privacy, a full range of spa facilities, and branded spa products are preferred by customers. Moreover, therapist qualifications, price, and level of privacy are found to be the most important attributes in making spa bookings. Paper also examines the relative importance of different spa attributes to spa-goers of different sociodemographic backgrounds and spa visit characteristics.