When I was in college, my door into the spa industry opened when someone reached out to help me. Spa therapy changed my entire health and wellbeing, and it continues to do so today. As much as I love the holistic wellness and altruistic side of the spa world, I very acutely recognize this is a business. In order to do well by your clients and impact their health and in order to support our therapists in their careers, our organizations must stay healthy and profitable. Licensed in massage, esthetics, and cosmetology and holding a business management degree, I'm grateful to have knowledge and insight from all sides of the spa. READ MORE

Authentic experiences and personal well-being have become increasingly important to the modern consumer, and hotels that provide an opportunity for travelers to maintain personal wellness not only engage their leisure visitors, but group guests and locals as well. As many hotel spa and fitness facilities are seriously underutilized, a new type of spa dedicated to wellness allows a hotel to capture the growing number of health-conscious consumers searching for travel experiences that adapt to their personal needs. When executed properly, a hotel can leverage its spa/wellness offerings to reach beyond the hotel stay, extending the guest experience post-visit to create long-term loyalty. READ MORE

Over the last decade, we have seen the nation take a greater interest in health and wellness. There has been a major paradigm shift calling for higher quality, organic products and transparency with ingredients. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now requires restaurants, retail food establishments and vending machines to list the amount of calories associated with each item. Organic grocers like Whole Foods are leading the market with their superior offerings. It's no surprise that this consumer trend has also manifested in the hospitality industry where hotel designers, owners and developers are seeing greater demand for health and wellness products than ever before. READ MORE

In the drive to increase bookings, hotel owners sometimes overlook a key component that can have a dramatic impact on their online visibility: local SEO. Search engines rely on a variety of signals when determining your hotel website's position and visibility in search results. Local SEO strategies cover three of the top web ranking signals that Google and the other search engines consider: on-page signals, citations from well-established, respected local directories, and reputable backlinks. When you correctly and proactively apply these local SEO strategies, you strengthen your hotel's business profile and help establish your website domain authority. READ MORE

I have just completed an incredible round-the-world voyage teaching on Semester at Sea, a floating university campus that visits around a dozen countries, giving students a comparative study-abroad experience that is truly global. One of the countries I visited was Morocco where, seeking to understand why the country is Africa's most popular tourist destination, I interviewed two successful entrepreneurs - one French and one British - responsible for attracting tourists to this exotic destination. Both have opened up modernized riads in the beachy-chic resort of Essaouira, on the Atlantic Coast. The Moroccan Riad is a traditional house or palace with an interior garden or courtyard. READ MORE