Hospitality & Global Wellness

Global travel and hospitality markets continue to thrive with multicultural diversity and wellness. Being connected to people around the world has become a fixture of life. This is clear in the steady rise of international and domestic travel. Our ability to experience new people, places and exotic destinations is closer in view and easier to explore than ever before.

Wellness tourism is a thriving relatively new travel segment that promotes health and wellbeing through physical, psychological or spiritual activities. While traveling for relaxation has been a long-standing benefit of going on vacation, this market embraces new motivating features that instill long-term wellness in a variety of different settings.

Those seeking to improve or maintain their health and quality of life, tend to focus on acquiring new skills to manage their wellbeing through information and prevention. Wellness focused travel offers a dynamic spectrum of tools and experiences focused on increasing personal and sustainable wellbeing. These experiences can be profound and transformational.

The benefit of learning new life, health and wellness techniques on vacation, often results in meaningful and lasting lifestyle skills.

The Global Wellness Summit and SRI International Monitor reported “In 2013 Global Wellness was a $3.4 trillion market or 3.4 times larger than the worldwide pharmaceutical industry.”

This marks a monumental shift in tourism spending and represents the global quest to seek ways to live healthier lifestyles, through the hospitality sector and travel. The 2014 Global Wellness Summit and 2013 SRI International Monitor highlighted the main market segments as:

• Healthy Eating/Nutrition/Weight Loss ($574.2 billion)
• Fitness & Mind/Body ($446.4 billion)
• Beauty & Anti-Aging ($1.025 trillion)
• Preventative/Personalized Health ($432.7 billion)
• Complementary/Alternative Medicine ($186.7 billion)
• Workplace wellness ($40.7 billion)
• Wellness Lifestyle Real Estate ($100 billion)

The 2016 Global Wellness Economic Monitor reported a $3.72 trillion spend in 2015 worldwide on wellness which accounts for 5.1 percent of global economic output. It far outpacing global GDP growth, and is nearly half of all health expenditures.

A breakdown, by category:

• Healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss ($647.8 billion)
• Beauty and anti-aging ($999 billion)
• Wellness Tourism ($563.2 billion)
• Fitness, Mind & Body ($542 billion)
• Prevention/Personalized health ($534.3 billion)
• Complimentary/Alternative Medicine ($199 billion)
• Wellness Lifestyle Real Estate ($118.6 billion)
• Spa Treatments ($98.6 billion)
• Thermal and mineral spring facilities ($51 billion)
• Workplace Wellness (43.3 billion)

I partnered with the Global Wellness Summit for the 2013 SRI International Monitor as well as for the 2015 Global Wellness Economic Monitor on behalf of The Arizona Spa & Wellness Association. These numbers will continue to rise year over year. Those which some perceived as various “industry trends” have clearly proved their place in the market as a thriving and multidisciplinary new paradigm.

While an number of things are growing in this market, retreat experiences are in high demand. People are craving a deeper connection to nature and new places. There is something seductive about being surrounded by new scenery and indigenous culture with enrichment and learning. Destination retreats are popular and available in an array of themes and natural environments. It’s all about the experience.

These experiences are tailored to a number of topics from business and lifestyle to personal development and new health régimes. You can also find a myriad of spiritual and wellness related retreats for personal growth, weight loss, healing and meditation. There are abundant options for today’s wellness seeking and ambitious traveler.

So what does this mean?

It means, the global hospitality market has never been riper for growth and change. It also means it is a prime time to add new layers of innovation and value. Wellness integration at any level has become an essential component to capture and entice wellness focused guests with measurable success. Knowing how to identify trends, anticipate demands and create unique concepts creates an inspired advantage.

For more information about Global Wellness and how you can add new value to your business or to request a meeting, please visit my contact page or email me at [email protected]