Nearly 4 out of 10 indoor tanning businesses say their average client visits their stores more often than they did two years ago, according to a SmartTan.com poll conducted in February.

About the same number say just the opposite — that the average client visits less often, while just about 1 out of 4 reported no change.

“You can look at this poll a lot of ways. Certainly some tanning businesses have found ways to increase traffic, while others are still struggling either with their business model or with the economy in general,” Smart Tan Vice President Joseph Levy said. “This poll by itself doesn’t tell the whole story, but it is interesting.”

A SmartTan.com poll in January reported that 49 percent of salons said their business performance was up from a year ago, with 33 percent reporting lower numbers. In a December poll, 71 percent of salons reported feeling more positive about the future of the market than they did at the end of 2010.

“Whether it’s increasing traffic, or increasing per-person averages, there are success stories in the tanning market right now, and the general sense of optimism in the tanning community seems to reflect that.