EVERY season brings a new crop of "buzz" words permeating the travel world. Just as there are "in" places that come and go with each disappearing year, so there are activities and themes that perennially go into a repeat mode, as though rediscovering the wheel.

A stunning number of press releases flooding across my desk with the force of a tide surging into the Bay of Fundy seem to be focused on three basic themes . . . the erupting evolution of spas, even in the most modest of properties . . . growing universal emphasis on attracting luxury-seeking, free spending clients . . . and how to circumvent the falling dollar by purchasing prepaid tours and cruises.

Also arriving, but in slightly lower volume, are proclamations about baby boomers seeking more action adventure and education-themed travel. This traveller must have been living in "a parallel world", one of quantum physics' latest themes of speculation. Or is it the fact that high-pressure recycled hype just keeps being resurrected?

Coming from a long line of adventure-minded travel enthusiasts who considered no corner of the world too remote, this repeated refrain about baby boomers' new interest comes as a bewildering "discovery" to this traveller.

Anyone who can travel anywhere and not come back knowing more about the world must be doing so with a paper bag over their head. If travel anywhere hasn't been educational to this point, people must have been doing so with their eyes closed.

Yes, there's now more emphasis on going to a total immersion language school overseas, signing up for a Tuscan cooking school, becoming a volunteer on an archaeological site and so forth.

But didn't you always feel a sense of education visiting museums and historic sites on personal world travels and meeting local people in remote off-trail locations? My parents always included them on family trips, along with factory tours where we watched everything from Buster Brown shoes being made to Ford Motor cars being built.

knowing too much about a subject accumulated in our extensive travels caused problems in school. Like the time we'd returned from the iron ore mines of Michigan's upper Peninsula and my brother Jim's sixth-grade teacher was explaining how such ore was mined.

The teacher did not appreciate it when Jim interjected that he'd just been down in one of those mines and that wasn't how it was being done at all. The teacher's knowledge came from a book, his from actually seeing the operation first hand with some ore samples in his pocket.

But I digress. Yes, spas have been around a long time, so news about their "current" spread is a bit belated. The ancient Romans could teach us a thing or two about their benefits. But news about their spread seems to be everywhere as though a totally new discovery.

Sonesta and Fairmont are among properties that have offered very sophisticated spa facilities in Bermuda for years, far ahead of others overseas just now hailing that bandwagon. It's been years since I relaxed at Sonesta while a well-trained spa therapist worked the invigorating magic of reflexology on tired feet, almost immediately ready to go dancing.

Now, an ever-increasing number of properties world-wide are creating their own signature spa brands. The Shangrila Hotels group has integrated spa suite facilities into its Bangkok hotel, with others set for its luxury properties in, among others, Fiji, the Maldives, the Philippines, Shanghai and Beijing.

A Sydney, Australia harbour cruise now highlights total Swedish body massage, along with tarot card readings. Is that next?

Starwood Hotels has introduced spas into its W Hotels, along with its own line of spa amenities. Leading Hotels of the World is also entering this trend in a big way. It recently conducted a survey among its luxury properties' clientele and found "59 per cent planned a vacation to specifically include a spa experience".

Thirty-one per cent said a spa was "extremely important in selecting a hotel", 49 per cent labelled it important. Nearly 16 per cent of leading hotel properties said they visited a spa ten times a year while 35 per cent went three to five times annually.

Why the interest? Forty-seven per cent said they did it to pamper themselves, 22 per cent for exercise and six per cent to lose weight.

Among the newest is a 10,000-square-foot addition at Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands. This traveller found swimming daily along its secluded beach and taking long hikes into its hilly shoreline spa experience enough. But its new widely-promoted treatments are making news . . . they include a West Indian honey and sesame seed rub, which may sound a bit sticky to some.

It's a beautiful resort, but this seven-night package in a beachfront suite costs $9,180 double through March 31 on full American plan, plus 17 per cent tax and service charge. Not a modest price tag.

Peter Island will probably remember this traveller who got locked out of her beachfront suite a few years ago and an employee had to remove a screen and bathroom window to gain entry crawling through the bathtub.

A spa industry study in 2004 showed the US has an estimated 12,000 spas, an increase of 25 per cent over two years ago. And that covers just a small corner of the world. Many are day spas, but a growing number are associated with resorts and hotels.

growing trend neatly segues into one of the most written about segments of the vacation industry . . . luxury travel. It seems everyone ? cruise lines, car rental agencies, resorts, tour companies, you name it ? is declaring an interest in focusing attention on attracting luxury travellers.

Obviously it's understandable . . . that's where the big money is and that bottom line is important. Most recent addition to that list was Turks and Caicos which recently announced its intention to monitor development.

"We're not in the numbers game," said Michael Misick, the chain's Chief Minister. "We don't want to overdevelop Turks and Caicos . . . this would damage its appeal. We want quality, not quantity."

Although the island chain is "seeking up-market travellers", it's equally devoted to sustainable development. "Properties are subject to environmental impact assessments to insure environment and ecology are not affected," said Mr. Misick. Turks and Caicos is mentioned here only because it's the latest such declaration to cross my desk. There's an ever-growing pile of similar statements just like it sitting next to my computer printer.

But just how many travellers actually fit into that category, the luxury travel market? One wonders if there are enough to go around? Some surprising statistics partially answer that question.

Although there are already a number of magazines focusing on the luxury market, another is about to be launched. Its publisher quoted a recent study by a well-known US firm concerning interests and financial positions of what they labelled "affluent travellers".

How about these figures? The researchers found six of every ten US households have an annual income of $150,000 or more. (That's before paying their income tax, hefty land taxes, school tuitions ? like Northwestern University that was just raised to over $41,000 annually and so on).

But what really stunned this journalist, whose undergraduate and graduate study was in economics, was the fact that four in ten had a net worth of only $150,000 or more.

Obviously, a lot of them are spending all their money on luxury travel and an upscale lifestyle, not accumulating equity in a house, condo, investments and so forth. Another economic downturn could bring a lot of this free spending to a sudden halt. The study found their most commonly owned car was a Lexus or BMW, quality and value was more important to them than price and discovering new and different restaurants "is at the top of what affluent travellers want when it comes to entertainment". All of which should make restaurant owners, car dealers and high end shops around the world happy.

This study focused on American travellers, but general statistics world-wide indicate rising credit card debt everywhere. So it appears enticing a certain type of traveller with the promise of luxury can be very successful.

emphasis here seemed to be on young travellers. These statistics very much contrast spending habits and net worth of quiet, unpretentious old money. For some reason, it made me think of the local vice-president of a major oil company who used to like to garden wearing a worn old piece of wash line as a belt and drove a nondescript modest car. He once told my father: "I don't want people to think I have money."

An interesting contrast. So the market for luxury travel is a broad and diverse one. It focuses on some who can truly afford it, others who wish they could some day, and many willing to mortgage their future to enjoy it now. In weeks to come we'll be telling you about how to enjoy a very comfortable degree of luxury without spending a fortune to do it.

Newfoundland and Labrador . . . undiscovered treasures