Well, from every indication, there was some positive movement for the 2017 prime season. Over the last few months I’ve been talking with salons across Canada, and the majority were positive over their future in the industry. There were still a number of facilities not resigning leases or closing, but they seem to be smaller locations. May and June seemed to be the big increase months with the others at the same as last year or slightly up. This is a good indicator that Canadian are still preparing for the summer month by pretanning or acclimatizing their skin. I’ve had salons tell me that the great increases of May and June continued in to July and August. My wife’s salon didn’t see this in July but did see it in August. She believed that the tremendous sales in June took away from July sales, but sales were the same as the year previous for July.

UV sunbathing sessions, from all indication, are up for 2017. Spray tanning also was well up this year. People are now not only using this service for special occasions; it’s become part of their weekly routine. The session price for spray tanning seems to be coming down, probably because of so many salons having some type of spray tan system – booth or handheld. It’s interesting that the older population is doing spray tanning as well. This group also comes in pairs – husband and wife, life partners. The spray tan is no longer for young people getting ready for the bar or party – everyone is doing it. With the lowering of the price per session, the market has diversified. Lotion sales for both UV and spray were up as well this year for the spring season.

The media attention on our industry has been almost nil. We’ve had the odd writeup, but this has been around since I got in to the industry in mid ’80s. Unless we see some type of research or convention that pertains to Canada, I don’t see the media interested in an adult business. We need to continue to show them that we all follow professional standards and protect our client. That we control the equipment with industry certified operators that choose the correct exposure time for their clients.

When I look at the sales in May and June and compare that to the JCTA social media campaign, which was in high gear February to May, salons were benefiting from the campaign with the geotargeting salon finder on TanResponsible.ca. With 37,000 new Canadian going to the website and checking out what member salons offer (salon website linking) and video imagery of responsible tanning in ads (1.6 million views), I can’t see how it didn’t help sales. I talked to a few salon owners that did indicate that they got referrals from the website. Some salons were even talking about how many new people to the industry they had this year. The JCTA’s marketing committee is hard at work for the next campaign, which will start in December as we did last year. It would be nice to do this year-round but with limited funding from membership and $1 per invoice funding we can only do it for 7 months. 2016/2017 was the first time we did a 7-month campaign and it proved itself.

As the spend on ads went up in January, the number of visits to the website went up. I hope by looking at this chart you can see the reason you should be a member and support the JCTA. On average membership cost is about 57 cents a day. The JCTA is trying to do what the egg producers did years ago with their “Get Cracking” campaign. The negative publicity about high cholesterol and eggs almost crippled the industry. This industry turned itself around with “Get Cracking” which was funded by Egg Farmers of Canada and its members. We can do the same with “Please Tan Responsibly”

The JCTA will continue educating governments and media that overexposure is the major problem, there are risks and benefits for everything we do in life and any legislation needs to weigh both sides before taking action. The JCTA will continue to make sure when something is said about the industry that it is  not over blown or misinterpreted.

Please take 57 cents a day out of your pocket and become a member. Remember, you can make monthly payments. Thank you all that support industry associations.