As most of us adults were growing up, the notion of a “spa day,” “spa birthday” or even a mother taking her child or teen to the spa to bond was relatively unheard of. Nowadays, however, the culture, experience and proximity of spas has grown so much that now teens and even young children are becoming avid spa-goers.

The number of spas in the U. S. has been increasing at a remarkable rate with 10,128 spas in the U.S. in April of 2004, 13,757 spas recorded in August of 2006, and this number rose again by 6 percent in August 2007 to 14,615 spas. This past year we saw an unbelievable number of new spas pop up and this number rose by 19 percent in 2008 to 21,300 spas in the U.S.!

The increase in the popularity of spas does not end with the increase in the number of locations. There were more than 160 million trips to the spas in the U.S. in 2008, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, while industry revenue grew almost 18 percent to $12.8 billion according to an ISPA study. For an industry to grow so much, and so continuously, there must be new groups of people going to the spa, but who are these new spa-goes? That’s right; the next generation of spa-goers is the teenagers and youngsters.

According to a 2008 trend report by spas.About.com, nearly 4 million teens have gone to the spa, and the reasons they go vary from stress relief to better skin to picking up healthier eating habits. Thirty-four percent of spas offer teen packages, while 16 percent of spas have teen programs and 17 percent offer packages for children. The numbers of existing spas and new spas offering these packages will no doubt continue to increase as this trend is not going to die overnight.

Of the thousands of spas that offer spa services for teens and kids, there is the chain of Great Wolf Lodges that allows children and teens to choose their own sherbet scrub. The Wild HareYouth Spa at the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort in Texas lets children create their own lip gloss or even have an Ice Cream Pedicure for $55 (but what kid would want to waste all that delicious ice cream!)  The Kingsmill Spa in Williamsburg, Virginia even offers a Spa Kamp Birthday Party service, which is intended for children aged 5-10 years old, and includes a number of treatments and activities.

These new spas and spa packages targeted towards teens and children can range in price from your mommy’s luxurious locations and treatments, such as the Four Seasons in Bora Bora or the Trump Hotel in Chicago, to the more affordable, including the Boyne Mountain Resort in Michigan which has mini treatments for children for as little as $10. I would have never thought about it before, but I can’t wait until my little girls are old enough to where I can take them to the spa!