www.canada.com  By Paul Luke The leisure loving pharaohs of Egypt, who were the first spa-goers, would be right at home in the Sunmore Ginseng Spa in Kamloops, B.C.

But the Sunmore, unlike other spas, lays no claim to descent from ancient Egypt -- let alone from battle-sore Roman legionnaires who became Europe's first spa clients.

The upstart Sunmore traces its origins back a mere seven years.

In 1999, Carrie Pan, a tourism management student at what is now Thompson Rivers University, completed a school project that envisioned a spa in Kamloops.

After Pan graduated, ginseng products manufacturer Sunmore Healthtech hired her as a sales associate. When it heard about her idea for a spa, the company saw it as an opportunity to expand its market for ginseng.

The $5-million spa opened its doors in 2004, with Pan as general manager. "We're the first spa in North America to introduce ginseng treatments," Pan says.

Meet Canada's spa industry: It's booming, it's stress-busting and it can sound strange.

The spa sector is generating big bucks by offering stressed-out consumers sweet and exotic treatments ranging from ginseng facials to chocolate body scrubs and maple syrup massages.

Spa visits in Canada generate more than a billion dollars a year in revenue, according to research by the Canadian Tourism Commission and the International Spa Association.

The nation's spa industry, expanding by an average of 17 per cent a year, has reached 2,500 establishments, the CTC says.

Consumers, who used to treat spas as an indulgence, are coming to rely on them to nurture physical and spiritual health, says Vivienne O'Keeffe, a Lions Bay, B.C.-based spa consultant.

"It's not about pampering yourself and what colour of nail polish you have," O'Keeffe says. "People see spas as an investment in their lives, just as they would invest in bonds."

O'Keeffe identifies three types of spa consumers -- peripherals, intermediate and core. A person's first spa experience often comes through a gift certificate.

As the frequency of visits grows, spa-goers move from the edge to the middle of the loyalty spectrum, O'Keeffe says.

But as the number of their visits grows, consumers become more savvy and discerning, she warns. "It's going to be survival of the fittest," O'Keeffe predicts. "People want an authentic experience and a cathartic effect.

"That's not going to happen in a little nail shop that's hustling and bustling and full of fumes."

Jack Morrison, managing director of Toronto's Elmcrest College, a spa school that offers North America's only full-time diploma program in spa management, says spa holidays are catching on as vacationers seek to escape, relax and heal.

As some urban centres get saturated with day spas, the resort-hotel sector is becoming the industry's growth driver, says Morrison, who is also president of Leading Spas of Canada, Canada's national spa association.

"Any major hotel chain will not build a new hotel without including a spa facility," Morrison says. "Resort hotels represent 19 per cent of locations but 24 per cent of revenue."

Bread-and-butter services such as massage, facial, manicure and pedicure remain the biggest revenue-spinners but the industry is wrapping them in exotic packages and geographically specific products, he says.

Vancouver Province

SPAS BY THE NUMBERS

Canada's 2,500 spas directly employ about 25,000 people, according to Canadian Tourism Commission research.

- Eighty per cent of spas are single-owner or small firms, commission research shows;

- The average age of a Canadian spa is four years;

- Day spas represent 74 per cent of all locations, destination spas about 19 per cent and medical spas about three per cent;

- The nation's spas receive more than 14 million visits a year, the commission says;

- Average annual revenue per spa has grown to about $501,000 in 2006 from $398,000 in 2004;

- Massage is the most popular spa service in Canada, accounting for 86 per cent of treatments;

- The average price in Canada for a massage is $70. For a facial, it's $71.