Wellness is a booming industry in the travel sector, with the 'wellness tourism' segment alone now netting a $494 billion worth worldwide.
“Wellness is a megatrend,” director of Destination Spa Management, Samantha Foster, told delegates at ITB this week. “This is a super, super exciting time to be a part of this industry.”
Smart lifestyle choices do not underlie this health revolution. The knock-on economic effect of bad health choices has prompted many governments worldwide to prioritize wellness, Foster told the audience.
“If you look at an individual level, mankind is far more obese than ever before and far more stressed, and there’s a whole raft of chronic diseases that are coming up as a result of this lifestyle,” Foster said. “Death, disability from all of these things are going to result in more strain on health services, lost income… this is going to push millions of people below the poverty line.”
The International Health and Wellness Alliance (IHWA) noticed a continued commitment to embracing wellness concepts among hotels, holding Westin as a prime example.
“I think a lot of the hotel brands are under pressure to add wellness components, whether it’s adding villas that are for sale, that helps pay for the hotel development,” Foster said.
However, according to Foster, expansion of spa facilities to include complimentary and alternative therapies and healthier menus do not go far enough. She foresees the future of wellness as embodying a more holistic approach, which engages local surroundings " wellness communities.
Wellness communities
“I’m getting quite a lot of clients at the moment, particularly from China mainly, who are wanting to create these wellness communities where it’s not just the hotel that’s healthy, but it’s also the houses and the residential community,” Foster said.
“A project I’m working on in Shanghai at the moment. It’s going to be an entirely healthy hotel, 350-room hotel according to wellness-building principles,” she continued. “It’s also got a 10,000 square meter wellness center for the business travelers and for the local community.”
The idea with wellness communities is to create passive wellness, Foster explained.
“We often think that wellness means, ‘I need to choose to eat healthily’ or ‘I need to choose to exercise,’ or ‘I need to make an effort not to smoke or drink too much’,” Foster added. “But in wellness design what we’re talking about is creating a space that’s healthier in itself: true, good health quality, water quality, proper lighting. Even use of color, texture, shape, space, natural ventilation. All of this has a positive effect on our body.”
“I think this is quite typical of the type of properties we can see emerging in the future,” she concluded.
This is copyrighted materials and strictly an exclusive feature, reprints of this article in any shape or form without prior written approval from 4Hoteliers.com is not permitted.
