Owners of indoor tanning facilities are still finding time to tan as much or more than they did last year, a SmartTan.com poll conducted this month revealed.

More than three out of four salon owners say they tanned as much or more in 2009 — 76 percent. The other 24 percent said they tanned less often. Just about one-third — 34 percent — said they tanned more this year.

“We have been talking a lot about the fourth-generation of tanning facility ownership — that those running tanning businesses today are much better businesspeople, as a group, than any generation in the past. But it appears that this new group of owners is getting the message that UV is the natural way to make vitamin D, and that there’s a reason people feel and look good when they are getting regular sun — indoors in a salon or outdoors.”

Gone are the days when tanners and salon owners went for what came to be known as the “savage tan” — the the over-done look of the mid-1980s. “At that point no one knew that burning and overexposure were bad at all. Today we know that indoor tanning at its best — Smart Tanning — means teaching gradual tanning and sunburn prevention. Sticking to that standard and finding better ways to promote it is going to be the future of indoor tanning.”