• American Express Reveals 2024 Top Travel Trends

  American Express Travel® released its 2024 Global Travel Trends Report[1] today, highlighting the inspiration and trends driving global travel bookings this year. The report, based on survey data from travelers in the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, found that 84% of respondents plan to spend more or the same amount of money on travel in 2024 compared to last year. Additionally, 77% of respondents care more about having the right travel experience than about the cost of the trip.The four trends driving booking decisions are:· For the Love of the Game: Sports fans are planning trips around athletic events, whether it involves a favorite sport, a beloved team, or an international multi-sport competition· Planning Big: Major, expedition-style adventures, like a trip to the Galapagos Islands or trekking with the gorillas, deliver the transformative experiences that travelers are looking for· Going Solo: Travelers are takings trips alone, embracing the ease of planning and ability to tailor itineraries that are a perfect fit· On a Whim: With so much of life being structured and scheduled these days, people are seeking flexibility in their travel plans and leaving room for spontaneity“Travelers are focused on creating the right itineraries and building memories, whether that means booking a trip to see a favorite sports team compete or taking a once-in-a-lifetime expedition cruise,” says Audrey Hendley, President of American Express Travel. “Our Global Travel Trends Report sheds light on what is driving global travel bookings and provides inspiration for where to go next. Our American Express Travel Consultants can help, no matter what type of trip you want to take.”Top insights from American Express Travel’s 2024 Global Travel Trends Report include:· A desire to see sporting events live and to watch favorite teams and beloved players in person are driving where travelers are going and what they are doing when they get there.- 67% of Millennial and Gen Z respondents[2] (compared to 58% of all respondents) are interested in traveling for sporting events in 2024- 58% of respondents who are traveling for sports in 2024 will do so for soccer, basketball or Formula 1 racing- New York, Miami and Paris are the top destinations respondents are planning to travel to for sporting events this summer· Transformative, once-in-a-lifetime trips, like visiting the Galapagos Islands and hiking in Antarctica, are at the top of many travelers’ wish lists, and younger travelers want an expert to help them plan.- 65% of respondents are more interested in taking a major trip in 2024 than in previous years- 72% of respondents would rather save money for a major trip than spend it on going out with friends; and more than half of respondents plan on saving between 6 months to 2 years for a major trip- 58% of Millennial and Gen Z respondents want a travel agent or trusted advisor to help them book a major trip this year- 55% of respondents planning a major trip would consider visiting multiple countries in a region· The ease of planning and ability to make the perfect, personalized itinerary is driving people to plan trips alone, especially younger travelers.- 76% of Millennials and Gen Z respondents (compared to 69% of all respondents) say they are planning on taking a solo trip 2024- 74% of male respondents and 63% of female respondents say they are planning on taking a solo trip in 2024- 66% of respondents planning on traveling solo are planning a trip tailored to treat themselves- 60% of respondents planning on traveling solo this year intend to take two or more solo trips· Travelers are leaning into flexible itineraries, allowing them the freedom to be spontaneous and experience the local culture when they travel.- 78% of respondents say that spontaneous trips appeal to them77% of Millennials and Gen Z have booked a last-minute trip before, compared to 65% of Gen X[3] and 52% of Baby Boomers[4]- 68% of respondents agree that they like to leave unplanned time in their trip to experience local culture/activities- 57% of respondents prefer booking a last-minute getaway to a nearby destination rather than somewhere far awayAs the demand for travel continues into 2024, American Express provides eligible Card Members with exceptional travel access and experiences, including 1400+ airport lounges through its Global Lounge Collection®; expert Travel Consultants who can build dream itineraries for everything from major trips like an expedition cruise or safari, to quick weekend getaways; restaurant reservations through Resy and curated where-to-eat guides at Resy.com/Travel; benefits across global sporting experiences and venues; benefits at over 2000 hand-picked hotels around the world via Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection; more than 1000 premium vacation rental properties via Select Homes + Retreats™, and more.The full American Express Travel 2024 Global Travel Trends Report can be viewed here. [1] Survey Methodology: This poll was conducted between January 31 - February 8, 2024 among a sample of 2005 US Adults, 1007 Australia Adults, 1002 Canada, 1002 UK Adults, 1002 Japan Adults, 1006 Mexico Adults and 1005 India Adults who have at least a $50k+ income equivalent and typically travel at least once a year. The interviews were conducted online. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 2-4 percentage points. Some geographies may be weighted with fewer variables depending on local census data availability.[2] Millennials and Gen Z are defined as respondents as being born between 1981 - 2012.[3] GenX are defined as respondents as being born between 1965 - 1980.[4] Baby Boomers are defined as respondents as being born between 1946 - 1964.

• The Global Wellness Institute Spotlights South Korea’s $113 Billion Wellness Economy

  The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), the leading nonprofit dedicated to research and education in the global wellness industry, has announced the addition of South Korea to its growing Geography of Wellness platform, through a partnership with Therme Group. A global organization committed to fostering inclusive urban wellbeing, Therme recently announced the location for its first Asia Pacific project as part of the Golden Harbor development in South Korea’s Incheon City. “GWI’s Geography of Wellness platform offers a detailed map of the wellness landscape, delineating the economic contributions of wellness-oriented businesses and activities specific to each nation,” said Susie Ellis, GWI chair and CEO. “South Korea, the world’s ninth largest wellness market, has demonstrated both growth and resilience, scaling from a pre-pandemic $99.6 billion in 2019, to a 5% dip in 2020 ($94.4 billion), to a valuation of $113 billion in 2022.” South Korea is not only thriving in its overall wellness economy but is also leading the charge in several specific categories, including ranking #6 globally in both physical activity and traditional & complementary medicine. The nation also secures the #8 spot worldwide in public health, prevention & personalized medicine, as well as workplace wellness—despite a slight dip in spending over the previous year in the latter sector— asserting its continued dedication to evolving workplace culture and public health initiatives. GWI assesses 11 key sectors within the wellness economies of 218 countries worldwide. South Korea has had notable valuation increases in virtually all sectors for 2022 (a new dedicated Global Wellness Economy: South Korea report is available for download.) South Korea Wellness Sector Annual Growth 2020-2022 with 2022 ValuationPhysical Activity: +11%, $29.68B Personal Care & Beauty: +3.5%, $24.87B Healthy Eating, Nutrition & Weight Loss: -0.5%, $13.49B Traditional & Complementary Medicine: +2.7%, $13.46B Public Health, Prevention & Personalized Medicine: +44.6%, $13.40B Wellness Real Estate: +16.5%, $8.37B Wellness Tourism: +11.3%, $5.43B Mental Wellness: +7.2%, valued at $2.86B Spas: +16.2%, valued at $1.55B Workplace Wellness: -3.6, $1.15B Thermal/Mineral Springs: +13.3%, $0.58B Living Well in South Korea Wellness in South Korea is a blend of centuries-old traditions and modern science and technology, in an environment rich in natural resources. Korean cuisine—with its vast variety of kimchi (fermented vegetables), banchan (side dishes), fresh seafood and vegan options—has already taken the world by storm. Wellness practices such as sauna and hot springs bathing, meditation, martial arts (taekwondo and taekgyeon), herbal and medicinal teas, acupuncture and moxibustion (a technique of burning herbal moxa cones to warm acupuncture points) are widely adopted for health maintenance and healing. Living well in South Korea today also means adopting modern fitness routines, accessing digital wellness tools, practicing skincare rituals, and accessing diverse cosmetic and beauty options popularly known across the world as K-beauty. Key Wellness Experiences in South Korea With its vast mountain ranges and surrounded by seas on three sides, South Korea offers a phenomenal natural setting for all types of wellness activities and holidays, from hot springs bathing, to hiking, to water sports; from mountain and seaside resorts to meditation retreats and temple stays. One can sample mountain herbs, temple cuisine, and traditional Korean dishes that can help promote blood circulation and warmth in cold weather. Its metropolises offer wellness amenities from spa and beauty to fitness, to traditional and complementary medicine. Visitors may want to try a mindful tea ceremony, or immerse in Korean bathing traditions at natural hot springs as well as communal baths and saunas, a social and family-friendly experience. Therme Group’s collaboration with GWI is pivotal in showcasing South Korea on the global stage. Stelian Iacob, senior vice president of Therme Group, remarked: “South Korea has rich and varied wellbeing traditions and a high-growth wellness economy. We are committed to enhancing the wellbeing of South Korea’s residents and visitors, and this research provides vital data for the industry. The research shows that people are rediscovering the health benefits of thermal bathing and wellness therapies, and we look forward to working with local partners to bring our unique wellbeing resort experience to the region.” To learn more about South Korea’s wellness economy, visit its dedicated Geography of Wellness page on the GWI website.

• Global Wellness Summit Releases 10 Wellness Trends for 2024

  The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) has released its annual Future of Wellness report, the longest-running, most in-depth (120-page) forecast of what will make waves in wellness in the year ahead. In the 20-plus years this trends team has been analyzing the wellness space, there have been more shakeups in 2023 than in the last decade. There certainly is momentum: the global market will grow from $5.6 trillion today to $8.5 trillion by 2027—with countless surveys revealing that wellness has never been such an important priority for people as now. But what kind of wellness matters—and for whom—is undergoing serious transformation. Generational, income, and gender gaps are widening in culture, and they’re creating a wellness landscape increasingly defined by very different—even contradictory—markets and mindsets. The GWS calls these polarized wellness markets “hardcare” and “softcare.” “Hardcare” describes the new hyper-medical, high-tech, even more expensive wellness market. “Softcare” captures the new desires for a low-pressure, simpler, less expensive, less relentlessly self-optimizing wellness, where emotional and social wellbeing matter most. This trends report illustrates how there is no longer one wellness narrative or unifying trend. The future is both “harder” and “softer” care, and that polarity will only widen. Themes in the report: More “hardcare”—from longevity clinics to weight loss drugs, medicine is muscling in: The speed at which medicine is invading the wellness market is astounding. One trend explores how the quest for longevity will continue to dominate the health/wellness space, with highly-medical, high-cost longevity clinics becoming the new business genre, offering everything from advanced diagnostics to stem cell treatments. Equally astounding is how fast new weight-loss drugs have upended behavior-change-focused wellness businesses, whether dieting platforms or resorts. Our trend analyzes these drugs’ impact, how wellness businesses quickly pivoted to prescribe Big Pharma’s magic “pricks,” and how the future is the wellness market delivering a healthier, more comprehensive weight-loss approach. More “softcare”—more low-fi, ancient, social, emotional, deeply human wellness: The media has been covering how younger gens (especially women) are pushing back against this last decade of high-pressure, uber-commodified wellness, and recasting true wellness as a messier, more joyful, simpler and cheaper affair. New desires for a simpler, more profound wellness drive one of our top travel trends of the year: how a record number of revitalized pilgrimage trails worldwide are luring new generations to the most ancient, slow, communal and spiritual form of travel. And if wellness has been complicit in clichéd views of masculinity (only focused on the physical), another trend explores how wellness will finally take a more human approach to men, with a wave of retreats, small groups, and apps focused on men’s social and emotional wellbeing. Wellness will tackle serious crises, from climate threats to women’s health: With temperatures breaking records each year, one trend explores a new “climate-adaptive wellness,” a surge in solutions that can cool our homes, cities and bodies. And since solving for grossly-ignored women’s health issues is now a heartbeat of wellness, another trend explores how desperately-needed innovation in postpartum care for new moms (and dads) is ahead—from post-birth retreats to new mental health apps. New tech, new wellness categories: Several trends illustrate how wellness technology innovation is going into overdrive. One explores how our homes are becoming high-tech health hubs, with everything from medical-grade diagnostic systems, to smart furnishings that make wellbeing adjustments in real-time. Technologies such as generative AI are also fueling a new era of “wellness art.” If experiencing art has always been a passive affair, a new wave of art experiences at museums, resorts and public spaces is turning it into a deeply multisensory, immersive experience, expressly designed to boost your mental wellbeing. TEN WELLNESS TRENDS FOR 2024: Climate-Adaptive Wellness With an increasingly heat-crushed planet, bringing massive physical and mental health risks, we will see a new “climate-adaptive wellness”: a wave of innovations that can cool our bodies, homes and cities. We simply cannot keep air conditioning more of the world: it’s erasing climate change progress. Cooling approaches—from the cutting-edge to the ancient—will be the burning issue in architecture and design. We’ll see more green space, tree cover, and rooftop gardens; high-tech building materials and heat-reflective paint for roads and roofs; and heat-fighting design from historically broiling places like the Middle East. Cities are re-thinking everything, building cooling centers and public pools, with many rushing to clean up their waterways to let people do wild swimming, an incredible line of defense. Smart-tech cooling clothing will go mainstream, as will wearables that monitor the body’s heat indicators, from core temp to hydration to electrolytes. There is even a new “climate-adaptive” beauty trend rising. Our baking planet is disrupting travel, with people moving away from traditional “hotspots,” trading beaches and deserts for mountains, the Mediterranean for Scandinavia, and summer vacations for fall or spring ones, in a move towards what’s being called “cool-cations.” So much will change in the traditional wellness space, from a new focus on hot/cold therapy’s role in the body’s thermoregulation to the rise of (cooler) “night-time wellness” programming at hotels and resorts, from star-gazing to full-moon yoga. The Power of the Pilgrimage One silver lining that came out of the pandemic gloom is that people all around the world rediscovered the simple joys and health benefits that come from walking, and a purposeful connection with nature. Today, walking enthusiasts are dramatically expanding their horizons by exploring ancient pilgrimage trails, fueling a global trend as record numbers of travelers take up multi-day hikes infused with spiritual exploration and cultural heritage in countries around the world. While nearly half a million pilgrims completed the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2023 (a new record), scores of modern pilgrims were also drawn to off-the-beaten-path sites in Japan, such as the Shikoku 88 and the Michinoku Coastal trails, as well as buzzy pilgrimage destinations in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India and Italy, all of which have undergone extensive restorations thanks to government efforts to promote holistic tourism. From a wellness perspective, this trend has serious legs: a pilgrimage is a metaphor for the path to enlightenment, engendering slow, meditative travel, and facilitating deeper engagement with our surroundings to foster a sense of awe. It also produces unexpected encounters with strangers that lead to a deeper perspective on the place of our “self” in a very big world. Savvy resorts are now looking to pilgrimages, offering wellness programs that incorporate journeys between sacred sites, participation in religious services such as meditating with monks or almsgiving, and providing access to ceremonies once attainable only after years of experience on the path to enlightenment. From Manning Up to Opening Up Wellness has long provided a space for women to open up, explore their emotions, and build community, but the same can’t be said for men. They’ve either been left out of the equation or, when included, the wellness offerings they’ve been served have reinforced a clichéd view of masculinity—from warrior-like fitness challenges to tough-guy biohacks. At the same time, shifting gender roles and a societal revolt against old-school masculinity have left men without a rulebook for what it means to “be a man” today. A cultural shift is underway. As the dire consequences of rising male loneliness are exposed, the wellness industry is responding with a new wave of solutions designed to help men reconnect with themselves and with one another. One example is the rise of men’s retreats like EVRYMAN and Junto, where unlearning stoicism and authentically sharing your feelings is the name of the game; another example is the new mental health apps designed specifically by and for men. In this trend, we explore how these so-called “softer” forms of wellness will serve as a much-needed catalyst for male connection. Looking further ahead, we anticipate that social and emotional wellness offerings for men will become more nuanced, more evenly distributed across all stages of life, and more global. The Rise of Postpartum Wellness Following childbirth, new parents typically find themselves in a care “desert”: all the attention is on the baby, and the medical system largely abandons them. While giving birth is a massive physical event, and new parenthood often entails serious mental health challenges, postpartum care has been grossly ignored. Change is here: a new, comprehensive postpartum wellness is now taking many directions. Cultures around the world have postpartum retreat traditions for the mom and baby (from Korea’s sanjujori to Latin America’s la cuarantena) that focus on deep rest, healthy food, baby-care education, massage and therapeutic bathing for the birthing parent. Increasingly, posh postpartum retreats are delivering precious days and weeks of postpartum recovery (at a price)—whether at Boram Postnatal Retreat in New York City or Kai Singapore. With postpartum depression rates rising globally, governments and corporations are taking action, while new apps are addressing the mental health of new parents (such as Mavida Health, offering a whole slate of therapy and counseling). More femtech startups are dedicated to postpartum care across the spectrum—from C-section recovery services to a boom in pelvic floor care products/services (so crucial to postpartum health). The wellness consumer goods market has exploded with options, from postpartum skincare to supplements, while brands are also destigmatizing sexual wellness post-birth. True postpartum wellness would mean a dramatic change in the current post-birth experience, with access to an integrated medical and wellness team that could deliver a holistic, empathetic approach to support new parents’ physical and emotional wellbeing, including education, proper nutrition, physical therapy and pain-focused therapies. The future needs to make what’s offered in the new, luxe postpartum retreats only a few can afford available to all. Longevity Has Longevity The speed at which longevity has seized the biotech, health and wellness spaces in the last year is staggering. No mere “trend,” it’s the new industry pillar, the lens to reexamine everything we do, and an entire interconnected “economy” pegged to be worth $610 billion by 2025. Driven by an aging population seeking a longer healthspan and a medical establishment still not focused on prevention, longevity is here for the long game and will only ramp up in 2024. So, we bring you two reports with different vantage points. The first, from Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD, clinical professor at UCSF School of Medicine, identifies the eight key areas of research driving the practical applications of longevity science—including personalized plans grounded in genetic, epigenetic and biomarker testing; research on senolytics (drugs that can remove senescent cells); telomere regeneration; nutrigenomics; and a new AI/GPT-driven healthcare. It provides a much-needed framework for what matters in what’s become a Wild West of longevity solutions. The second report explores the longevity boom from the perspective of the wellness industry, and how the highly-medical, high-tech (and high-priced) longevity clinic is the fastest-growing business genre, with over 1,000 clinics worldwide. Most offer advanced diagnostic testing (biomarker, genetic, hormonal, full-body MRIs, etc.), to identify issues before they become a problem, such as Fountain Life (whose heartbeat is AI-powered diagnostics) or Human Longevity Inc. (with genomics testing at its core). Others offer experimental, less-proven approaches such as stem cell treatments and plasma exchange—and the usual biohacking/recovery treatments (IV drips, cryotherapy, ozone therapy, etc.)—but now in the name of longevity. More high-end gyms (such as Saint Haven in Melbourne) are becoming full-blown longevity clinics, offering work-ups (preventative diagnostic testing, scans, etc.) along with their workouts. If wellness resorts have been more about “soul” than scans and stem cells, now a growing number are becoming highly-medical longevity destinations. Powerhouse medical-longevity players such as Spain’s SHA Wellness and Switzerland’s Clinique La Prairie are on the march, the latter planning 40 new urban “longevity hubs.” Soulful brand Six Senses is opening medical-longevity clubs (called Rosebar), with everything from epigenetic testing to stem cell therapy. More wellness resorts, like Italy’s Borgo Egnazia and Thailand’s Kamalaya Koh Samui, will embrace lo-fi longevity, offering Blue Zones retreats that get their guests connecting, cooking and moving like the people who live the longest in the world. In 2024, a further avalanche of clinics, travel destinations and tools will try to help you live longer and better. But we’ll also start asking some hard questions. About access: with uber-expensive clinics/solutions, are we entering a future where only the poor age? How can most people afford to live to 130? What is the impact of a “never die” mindset on our mental health and on the death-acceptance movement? A Wellness Check for Weight Loss Drugs The wellness industry was shaken up with the arrival of Big Pharma’s new, extremely effective GLP-1-inhibiting weight-loss drugs, the Ozempics and Mounjaros. They upended traditional behavior-change approaches to weight loss, recasting weight loss as a matter of biology rather than psychology and “willpower.” They quickly created challenges for behavior-change-focused businesses, whether dieting platforms, gyms, or wellness resorts. A big driver of the wellness market has always been weight loss, once more explicitly, and now more tacitly, as it became a dirty word after hard-fought body positivity gains. The new “magic pricks” quickly ripped open the weight loss Pandora’s box, and their impact on the world and wellness world will only become more intense in 2024. The number of people taking them has skyrocketed, resulting in ongoing global shortages. At least 70 new drugs are in development, with new, cheaper, very effective ones like Zepbound hitting the market this year. With people clamoring for the drugs, the trend covers how more wellness/health companies quickly pivoted to the (profitable) path of prescribing them, whether direct-to-consumer telemedicine brands like Ro or Found, or weight-loss platforms like WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and Noom. There is so much debate around the drugs and the companies making such moves. Proponents argue they could end the global obesity epidemic and save millions of lives; critics question their long-term health impacts, how they reinforce discriminatory ideals that “thin equals healthy,” and that, while they’re super-effective, they cannot deliver holistic health: exercise, healthy food, mental wellness, are still needed. In 2024, we predict the wellness world will start to interrogate how it could actually provide (not in name only) more honest, fully integrative, whole-health weight-loss approaches (spanning everything from nutrition coaching to fitness to mental health services to advanced metabolic health analysis), while also creating specific “wellness companion” programs for the drug-takers. The future: evidence-based methods that could help get people off these “forever” drugs and that specifically improve their health while on them. Sports Finds Its Footing in Hospitality After decades of fitness meaning lonely solo sessions at the gym, more people globally are embracing social, empowering sports (see: the pickleball explosion)—and more people want to train like near-elite athletes. At the same time, pro, collegiate, and even competitive junior athletes, constantly traveling to compete, have sorely lacked hospitality destinations that deliver wellness, recovery treatments and state-of-the-art gym equipment. It’s strange how much “sports” has been left out of the hospitality equation, but that’s now changing. Hospitality destinations are answering the call with everything from pro trainers to pro-level facilities—and if the global sports hospitality market was last valued at $4.75 billion, we think it will boom. More high-end wellness destinations are catering to recreational athletes who are serious about their sport, letting guests train and learn from their sports idols. Body Holiday in St. Lucia now features nine sports-themed months, led by pro athletes like NFL star Randy Moss and Olympians like Daley Thompson, Alix Klineman and Angie Akers, to let people up their running, swimming, and crewing game. In 2024, Aman Resorts is unveiling fitness, performance and recovery retreats led by five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova. New hospitality brands are squarely aimed at elite athletes, offering nth-degree wellness, fitness and recovery programming. Equinox Hotels plans 33 properties, and will next open in Saudi Arabia’s extraordinary Amaala wellness destination, with a pro-level gym, personal trainers, brain-stimulating tech to boost performance, and the full recovery menu, from cryo chambers to on-demand IV drips. Siro, a mind-blowing fitness and recovery hotel concept, opening its first property SIRO One Za’abeel next month in Dubai, optimizes everything (from rooms to food) for athletes of all levels, but is especially aimed at pros—from its vast gym designed by Olympic athletes to its incredible Recovery Lab. Sports tourism (people traveling to watch events) is a massive market, but more destinations are moving people from spectators to sports participants. The 2024 Paris Olympics will host a pre-Games marathon for regular folks so they can experience the thrill of the course. This summer’s Tour de France will, for the first time, open up new cycling routes near the course, so biking enthusiasts can jump in. Hospitality groups are thinking beyond “training like an athlete” and actually organizing competitive play: swimmers, runners, and tennis and pickleball players really want to compete with people at their level. So, in 2024, add a new category to the tourism lexicon: sports-meets-wellness travel. The Home as Highest-Tech-Health-Hub Wellness-focused homes have been a megatrend for years, with a big focus on amenities like meditation rooms and cold plunge pools. Now homes, and even cities, are becoming highest-tech, multifaceted health hubs. The shift is unprecedented, involving everything from the rise of medical-grade home health-monitoring systems to smart furnishings that adjust in real-time to individual wellbeing needs. In a post-pandemic era marked by increased time spent at home, health-at-home is taking bold new directions. The trend includes “Home Health Care,” where homes are becoming advanced “outpatient” care centers powered by digital health services—from fully-integrated telehealth to new health monitoring and diagnostic technology, reducing reliance on in-person interactions with practitioners. There is so much innovation in using M-health (mobile health) for home healthcare. For example, the just-released foneDX (from electronRX) uses existing smartphone sensors and a user interface app to measure a person’s critical heart and lung health right at home. In the next five years, 45% of healthcare services are expected to be delivered at home. Cities are becoming high-tech health hubs. In Saudi Arabia’s hotly-anticipated new smart city NEOM (unfolding in 2025), the futuristic healthcare system Dr. NEOM continuously collects health data from the population and houses it in a “digital twin” file of every resident. With this wealth of information, the system can precisely customize health and wellness interventions, and even predict health issues before they occur. It’s the city-as-wearable. Sensory-enhanced design is moving far beyond wellness concepts like feng shui and biophilic interiors. A new generation of textiles mean the very fabrics surrounding us at home will come alive as interactive interfaces. Companies like Getsound.ai and Endel are creating personalized bio-soundscapes grounded in our real-time biometric and environmental data. Our homes will ultimately evolve into multifaceted ecosystems, merging advanced nanotechnology and empathetic architecture to create living spaces that capture our biometrics to create environments dynamically extending from our own psyches. The home as high-tech health hub is a futuristic trend within the wellness real estate sector, the fastest-growing wellness market of all: now worth $398 billion and forecast to grow to $887.5 billion by 2027. A New Multisensory, Immersive Art for Wellness Art used to be a passive experience: you stare at a painting, or have lunch next to a sculpture garden. But no more. As newly tech-enabled artists—powered by innovations such as generative AI, projection mapping and spatial sound technologies—bring their craft to the mainstream, we’re entering an era of multi-sensory, wildly immersive art. Beyond a simple gaze, this next-gen art allows us to engage all of our senses and to participate, and is expressly designed to transform our mental wellbeing. Museums, hotels and spas are incorporating more and more multisensory art experiences into their offerings and, in doing so, are prioritizing wellness as an integrated offering. Case in point: the Mandala Lab at the Rubin Museum in New York City combines video, scent, sculpture, and sound based on Buddhist principles into one holistic, spiritual exhibit. At the Termemilano spa in Milan, Italy, a video skyscape of stormy skies surrounds a hydro pool, creating an unmatched moody vibe. Six Senses resorts are creating multisensory somatic experiences, like bio-alchemy sculptures infused with scents, flotation experiences suffused with ocean sounds, or geodesic domes with vibroacoustic floors. Multisensory, immersive art is becoming incredibly widespread in public places. From installations that dot cityscapes to AI-driven art in hospitals that utilize facial screening software to deliver audio-visuals based on your emotions. In the future, as adoption of wearable technologies becomes widespread, generative artworks will become even more hyper-personalized, participatory and therapeutically effective. Adaptive art will continue to take hold and push the boundaries of what sensory immersion and art-as-wellness can mean. Under the Radar At each annual Global Wellness Summit, delegates from around the world gather for four days of top-level insights. Because of its global nature and collection of diverse thought-leaders from the health and wellness world, it’s an incubator of new ideas. Many of these new ideas were the springboard for trends in this report, but GWS Chair and CEO Susie Ellis always notes interesting new directions also discussed that might be under the radar now but have the potential to become trends. This year, for the first time, Susie shares some of her emerging themes to watch. One key theme was for the wellness world to work harder at destigmatizing mental health issues and at creating new solutions, given the skyrocketing global rates of mental unwellness. Simone Biles’ keynote framed this huge issue, chronicling how mental struggles necessitated her withdrawal from the 2020 Olympics, and calling for a world where you could wear a “helmet on your head” to safely signal mental issues just as a cast does for a broken leg. The need for more mental wellness solutions percolated across the Summit. Amy McDonald (CEO, Under a Tree Consultancy) argued that with teens worldwide struggling mightily with mental health, we must lower age limits at wellness centers and spas, so they can benefit from evidence-based healing treatments, and properties like Qatar’s Zulal Wellness Resort have already risen to the occasion. There were very new ideas, such as Anjan Chattergee, MD, professor of neurology, University of Pennsylvania’s research into “slow looking,” how looking at an art piece for 15 minutes (rather than a few seconds) results in eye-opening impact on the brain. Another mega theme: governments embracing more innovative, powerful wellness policies. “Un-GDP” was discussed, with more governments moving beyond money-focused—in favor of quality-of-life—metrics to gauge national wellbeing. Through world-leading health/wellness policies, Singapore has dramatically improved its citizens’ health and longevity, which is why it was just named the sixth Blue Zone. This marks a new future of “Blue Zones 2.0,” where communities actively engineer environments that make it “natural” to make healthy choices. Keynote speaker Sophie Howe, the first Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, explained the crucial role policy must play in protecting the lives and health of those who will be born 50 years from now. Deborah Birx, MD, introduced the concept of “wellness diplomacy,” which could bring a divisive world together to collaborate on prevention. As for other things to watch? Dive into the other under-the-radar themes.

• American Express Reveals 2024 Top Travel Trends

  American Express Travel® released its 2024 Global Travel Trends Report[1] today, highlighting the inspiration and trends driving global travel bookings this year. The report, based on survey data from travelers in the United States, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, found that 84% of respondents plan to spend more or the same amount of money on travel in 2024 compared to last year. Additionally, 77% of respondents care more about having the right travel experience than about the cost of the trip.The four trends driving booking decisions are:· For the Love of the Game: Sports fans are planning trips around athletic events, whether it involves a favorite sport, a beloved team, or an international multi-sport competition· Planning Big: Major, expedition-style adventures, like a trip to the Galapagos Islands or trekking with the gorillas, deliver the transformative experiences that travelers are looking for· Going Solo: Travelers are takings trips alone, embracing the ease of planning and ability to tailor itineraries that are a perfect fit· On a Whim: With so much of life being structured and scheduled these days, people are seeking flexibility in their travel plans and leaving room for spontaneity“Travelers are focused on creating the right itineraries and building memories, whether that means booking a trip to see a favorite sports team compete or taking a once-in-a-lifetime expedition cruise,” says Audrey Hendley, President of American Express Travel. “Our Global Travel Trends Report sheds light on what is driving global travel bookings and provides inspiration for where to go next. Our American Express Travel Consultants can help, no matter what type of trip you want to take.”Top insights from American Express Travel’s 2024 Global Travel Trends Report include:· A desire to see sporting events live and to watch favorite teams and beloved players in person are driving where travelers are going and what they are doing when they get there.- 67% of Millennial and Gen Z respondents[2] (compared to 58% of all respondents) are interested in traveling for sporting events in 2024- 58% of respondents who are traveling for sports in 2024 will do so for soccer, basketball or Formula 1 racing- New York, Miami and Paris are the top destinations respondents are planning to travel to for sporting events this summer· Transformative, once-in-a-lifetime trips, like visiting the Galapagos Islands and hiking in Antarctica, are at the top of many travelers’ wish lists, and younger travelers want an expert to help them plan.- 65% of respondents are more interested in taking a major trip in 2024 than in previous years- 72% of respondents would rather save money for a major trip than spend it on going out with friends; and more than half of respondents plan on saving between 6 months to 2 years for a major trip- 58% of Millennial and Gen Z respondents want a travel agent or trusted advisor to help them book a major trip this year- 55% of respondents planning a major trip would consider visiting multiple countries in a region· The ease of planning and ability to make the perfect, personalized itinerary is driving people to plan trips alone, especially younger travelers.- 76% of Millennials and Gen Z respondents (compared to 69% of all respondents) say they are planning on taking a solo trip 2024- 74% of male respondents and 63% of female respondents say they are planning on taking a solo trip in 2024- 66% of respondents planning on traveling solo are planning a trip tailored to treat themselves- 60% of respondents planning on traveling solo this year intend to take two or more solo trips· Travelers are leaning into flexible itineraries, allowing them the freedom to be spontaneous and experience the local culture when they travel.- 78% of respondents say that spontaneous trips appeal to them77% of Millennials and Gen Z have booked a last-minute trip before, compared to 65% of Gen X[3] and 52% of Baby Boomers[4]- 68% of respondents agree that they like to leave unplanned time in their trip to experience local culture/activities- 57% of respondents prefer booking a last-minute getaway to a nearby destination rather than somewhere far awayAs the demand for travel continues into 2024, American Express provides eligible Card Members with exceptional travel access and experiences, including 1400+ airport lounges through its Global Lounge Collection®; expert Travel Consultants who can build dream itineraries for everything from major trips like an expedition cruise or safari, to quick weekend getaways; restaurant reservations through Resy and curated where-to-eat guides at Resy.com/Travel; benefits across global sporting experiences and venues; benefits at over 2000 hand-picked hotels around the world via Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection; more than 1000 premium vacation rental properties via Select Homes + Retreats™, and more.The full American Express Travel 2024 Global Travel Trends Report can be viewed here. [1] Survey Methodology: This poll was conducted between January 31 - February 8, 2024 among a sample of 2005 US Adults, 1007 Australia Adults, 1002 Canada, 1002 UK Adults, 1002 Japan Adults, 1006 Mexico Adults and 1005 India Adults who have at least a $50k+ income equivalent and typically travel at least once a year. The interviews were conducted online. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 2-4 percentage points. Some geographies may be weighted with fewer variables depending on local census data availability.[2] Millennials and Gen Z are defined as respondents as being born between 1981 - 2012.[3] GenX are defined as respondents as being born between 1965 - 1980.[4] Baby Boomers are defined as respondents as being born between 1946 - 1964.

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  • Global News

  2024-03-14

• The Global Wellness Institute Spotlights South Korea’s $113 Billion Wellness Economy

  The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), the leading nonprofit dedicated to research and education in the global wellness industry, has announced the addition of South Korea to its growing Geography of Wellness platform, through a partnership with Therme Group. A global organization committed to fostering inclusive urban wellbeing, Therme recently announced the location for its first Asia Pacific project as part of the Golden Harbor development in South Korea’s Incheon City. “GWI’s Geography of Wellness platform offers a detailed map of the wellness landscape, delineating the economic contributions of wellness-oriented businesses and activities specific to each nation,” said Susie Ellis, GWI chair and CEO. “South Korea, the world’s ninth largest wellness market, has demonstrated both growth and resilience, scaling from a pre-pandemic $99.6 billion in 2019, to a 5% dip in 2020 ($94.4 billion), to a valuation of $113 billion in 2022.” South Korea is not only thriving in its overall wellness economy but is also leading the charge in several specific categories, including ranking #6 globally in both physical activity and traditional & complementary medicine. The nation also secures the #8 spot worldwide in public health, prevention & personalized medicine, as well as workplace wellness—despite a slight dip in spending over the previous year in the latter sector— asserting its continued dedication to evolving workplace culture and public health initiatives. GWI assesses 11 key sectors within the wellness economies of 218 countries worldwide. South Korea has had notable valuation increases in virtually all sectors for 2022 (a new dedicated Global Wellness Economy: South Korea report is available for download.) South Korea Wellness Sector Annual Growth 2020-2022 with 2022 ValuationPhysical Activity: +11%, $29.68B Personal Care & Beauty: +3.5%, $24.87B Healthy Eating, Nutrition & Weight Loss: -0.5%, $13.49B Traditional & Complementary Medicine: +2.7%, $13.46B Public Health, Prevention & Personalized Medicine: +44.6%, $13.40B Wellness Real Estate: +16.5%, $8.37B Wellness Tourism: +11.3%, $5.43B Mental Wellness: +7.2%, valued at $2.86B Spas: +16.2%, valued at $1.55B Workplace Wellness: -3.6, $1.15B Thermal/Mineral Springs: +13.3%, $0.58B Living Well in South Korea Wellness in South Korea is a blend of centuries-old traditions and modern science and technology, in an environment rich in natural resources. Korean cuisine—with its vast variety of kimchi (fermented vegetables), banchan (side dishes), fresh seafood and vegan options—has already taken the world by storm. Wellness practices such as sauna and hot springs bathing, meditation, martial arts (taekwondo and taekgyeon), herbal and medicinal teas, acupuncture and moxibustion (a technique of burning herbal moxa cones to warm acupuncture points) are widely adopted for health maintenance and healing. Living well in South Korea today also means adopting modern fitness routines, accessing digital wellness tools, practicing skincare rituals, and accessing diverse cosmetic and beauty options popularly known across the world as K-beauty. Key Wellness Experiences in South Korea With its vast mountain ranges and surrounded by seas on three sides, South Korea offers a phenomenal natural setting for all types of wellness activities and holidays, from hot springs bathing, to hiking, to water sports; from mountain and seaside resorts to meditation retreats and temple stays. One can sample mountain herbs, temple cuisine, and traditional Korean dishes that can help promote blood circulation and warmth in cold weather. Its metropolises offer wellness amenities from spa and beauty to fitness, to traditional and complementary medicine. Visitors may want to try a mindful tea ceremony, or immerse in Korean bathing traditions at natural hot springs as well as communal baths and saunas, a social and family-friendly experience. Therme Group’s collaboration with GWI is pivotal in showcasing South Korea on the global stage. Stelian Iacob, senior vice president of Therme Group, remarked: “South Korea has rich and varied wellbeing traditions and a high-growth wellness economy. We are committed to enhancing the wellbeing of South Korea’s residents and visitors, and this research provides vital data for the industry. The research shows that people are rediscovering the health benefits of thermal bathing and wellness therapies, and we look forward to working with local partners to bring our unique wellbeing resort experience to the region.” To learn more about South Korea’s wellness economy, visit its dedicated Geography of Wellness page on the GWI website.

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  • Global News

  2024-02-16

• Global Wellness Summit Releases 10 Wellness Trends for 2024

  The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) has released its annual Future of Wellness report, the longest-running, most in-depth (120-page) forecast of what will make waves in wellness in the year ahead. In the 20-plus years this trends team has been analyzing the wellness space, there have been more shakeups in 2023 than in the last decade. There certainly is momentum: the global market will grow from $5.6 trillion today to $8.5 trillion by 2027—with countless surveys revealing that wellness has never been such an important priority for people as now. But what kind of wellness matters—and for whom—is undergoing serious transformation. Generational, income, and gender gaps are widening in culture, and they’re creating a wellness landscape increasingly defined by very different—even contradictory—markets and mindsets. The GWS calls these polarized wellness markets “hardcare” and “softcare.” “Hardcare” describes the new hyper-medical, high-tech, even more expensive wellness market. “Softcare” captures the new desires for a low-pressure, simpler, less expensive, less relentlessly self-optimizing wellness, where emotional and social wellbeing matter most. This trends report illustrates how there is no longer one wellness narrative or unifying trend. The future is both “harder” and “softer” care, and that polarity will only widen. Themes in the report: More “hardcare”—from longevity clinics to weight loss drugs, medicine is muscling in: The speed at which medicine is invading the wellness market is astounding. One trend explores how the quest for longevity will continue to dominate the health/wellness space, with highly-medical, high-cost longevity clinics becoming the new business genre, offering everything from advanced diagnostics to stem cell treatments. Equally astounding is how fast new weight-loss drugs have upended behavior-change-focused wellness businesses, whether dieting platforms or resorts. Our trend analyzes these drugs’ impact, how wellness businesses quickly pivoted to prescribe Big Pharma’s magic “pricks,” and how the future is the wellness market delivering a healthier, more comprehensive weight-loss approach. More “softcare”—more low-fi, ancient, social, emotional, deeply human wellness: The media has been covering how younger gens (especially women) are pushing back against this last decade of high-pressure, uber-commodified wellness, and recasting true wellness as a messier, more joyful, simpler and cheaper affair. New desires for a simpler, more profound wellness drive one of our top travel trends of the year: how a record number of revitalized pilgrimage trails worldwide are luring new generations to the most ancient, slow, communal and spiritual form of travel. And if wellness has been complicit in clichéd views of masculinity (only focused on the physical), another trend explores how wellness will finally take a more human approach to men, with a wave of retreats, small groups, and apps focused on men’s social and emotional wellbeing. Wellness will tackle serious crises, from climate threats to women’s health: With temperatures breaking records each year, one trend explores a new “climate-adaptive wellness,” a surge in solutions that can cool our homes, cities and bodies. And since solving for grossly-ignored women’s health issues is now a heartbeat of wellness, another trend explores how desperately-needed innovation in postpartum care for new moms (and dads) is ahead—from post-birth retreats to new mental health apps. New tech, new wellness categories: Several trends illustrate how wellness technology innovation is going into overdrive. One explores how our homes are becoming high-tech health hubs, with everything from medical-grade diagnostic systems, to smart furnishings that make wellbeing adjustments in real-time. Technologies such as generative AI are also fueling a new era of “wellness art.” If experiencing art has always been a passive affair, a new wave of art experiences at museums, resorts and public spaces is turning it into a deeply multisensory, immersive experience, expressly designed to boost your mental wellbeing. TEN WELLNESS TRENDS FOR 2024: Climate-Adaptive Wellness With an increasingly heat-crushed planet, bringing massive physical and mental health risks, we will see a new “climate-adaptive wellness”: a wave of innovations that can cool our bodies, homes and cities. We simply cannot keep air conditioning more of the world: it’s erasing climate change progress. Cooling approaches—from the cutting-edge to the ancient—will be the burning issue in architecture and design. We’ll see more green space, tree cover, and rooftop gardens; high-tech building materials and heat-reflective paint for roads and roofs; and heat-fighting design from historically broiling places like the Middle East. Cities are re-thinking everything, building cooling centers and public pools, with many rushing to clean up their waterways to let people do wild swimming, an incredible line of defense. Smart-tech cooling clothing will go mainstream, as will wearables that monitor the body’s heat indicators, from core temp to hydration to electrolytes. There is even a new “climate-adaptive” beauty trend rising. Our baking planet is disrupting travel, with people moving away from traditional “hotspots,” trading beaches and deserts for mountains, the Mediterranean for Scandinavia, and summer vacations for fall or spring ones, in a move towards what’s being called “cool-cations.” So much will change in the traditional wellness space, from a new focus on hot/cold therapy’s role in the body’s thermoregulation to the rise of (cooler) “night-time wellness” programming at hotels and resorts, from star-gazing to full-moon yoga. The Power of the Pilgrimage One silver lining that came out of the pandemic gloom is that people all around the world rediscovered the simple joys and health benefits that come from walking, and a purposeful connection with nature. Today, walking enthusiasts are dramatically expanding their horizons by exploring ancient pilgrimage trails, fueling a global trend as record numbers of travelers take up multi-day hikes infused with spiritual exploration and cultural heritage in countries around the world. While nearly half a million pilgrims completed the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2023 (a new record), scores of modern pilgrims were also drawn to off-the-beaten-path sites in Japan, such as the Shikoku 88 and the Michinoku Coastal trails, as well as buzzy pilgrimage destinations in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India and Italy, all of which have undergone extensive restorations thanks to government efforts to promote holistic tourism. From a wellness perspective, this trend has serious legs: a pilgrimage is a metaphor for the path to enlightenment, engendering slow, meditative travel, and facilitating deeper engagement with our surroundings to foster a sense of awe. It also produces unexpected encounters with strangers that lead to a deeper perspective on the place of our “self” in a very big world. Savvy resorts are now looking to pilgrimages, offering wellness programs that incorporate journeys between sacred sites, participation in religious services such as meditating with monks or almsgiving, and providing access to ceremonies once attainable only after years of experience on the path to enlightenment. From Manning Up to Opening Up Wellness has long provided a space for women to open up, explore their emotions, and build community, but the same can’t be said for men. They’ve either been left out of the equation or, when included, the wellness offerings they’ve been served have reinforced a clichéd view of masculinity—from warrior-like fitness challenges to tough-guy biohacks. At the same time, shifting gender roles and a societal revolt against old-school masculinity have left men without a rulebook for what it means to “be a man” today. A cultural shift is underway. As the dire consequences of rising male loneliness are exposed, the wellness industry is responding with a new wave of solutions designed to help men reconnect with themselves and with one another. One example is the rise of men’s retreats like EVRYMAN and Junto, where unlearning stoicism and authentically sharing your feelings is the name of the game; another example is the new mental health apps designed specifically by and for men. In this trend, we explore how these so-called “softer” forms of wellness will serve as a much-needed catalyst for male connection. Looking further ahead, we anticipate that social and emotional wellness offerings for men will become more nuanced, more evenly distributed across all stages of life, and more global. The Rise of Postpartum Wellness Following childbirth, new parents typically find themselves in a care “desert”: all the attention is on the baby, and the medical system largely abandons them. While giving birth is a massive physical event, and new parenthood often entails serious mental health challenges, postpartum care has been grossly ignored. Change is here: a new, comprehensive postpartum wellness is now taking many directions. Cultures around the world have postpartum retreat traditions for the mom and baby (from Korea’s sanjujori to Latin America’s la cuarantena) that focus on deep rest, healthy food, baby-care education, massage and therapeutic bathing for the birthing parent. Increasingly, posh postpartum retreats are delivering precious days and weeks of postpartum recovery (at a price)—whether at Boram Postnatal Retreat in New York City or Kai Singapore. With postpartum depression rates rising globally, governments and corporations are taking action, while new apps are addressing the mental health of new parents (such as Mavida Health, offering a whole slate of therapy and counseling). More femtech startups are dedicated to postpartum care across the spectrum—from C-section recovery services to a boom in pelvic floor care products/services (so crucial to postpartum health). The wellness consumer goods market has exploded with options, from postpartum skincare to supplements, while brands are also destigmatizing sexual wellness post-birth. True postpartum wellness would mean a dramatic change in the current post-birth experience, with access to an integrated medical and wellness team that could deliver a holistic, empathetic approach to support new parents’ physical and emotional wellbeing, including education, proper nutrition, physical therapy and pain-focused therapies. The future needs to make what’s offered in the new, luxe postpartum retreats only a few can afford available to all. Longevity Has Longevity The speed at which longevity has seized the biotech, health and wellness spaces in the last year is staggering. No mere “trend,” it’s the new industry pillar, the lens to reexamine everything we do, and an entire interconnected “economy” pegged to be worth $610 billion by 2025. Driven by an aging population seeking a longer healthspan and a medical establishment still not focused on prevention, longevity is here for the long game and will only ramp up in 2024. So, we bring you two reports with different vantage points. The first, from Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD, clinical professor at UCSF School of Medicine, identifies the eight key areas of research driving the practical applications of longevity science—including personalized plans grounded in genetic, epigenetic and biomarker testing; research on senolytics (drugs that can remove senescent cells); telomere regeneration; nutrigenomics; and a new AI/GPT-driven healthcare. It provides a much-needed framework for what matters in what’s become a Wild West of longevity solutions. The second report explores the longevity boom from the perspective of the wellness industry, and how the highly-medical, high-tech (and high-priced) longevity clinic is the fastest-growing business genre, with over 1,000 clinics worldwide. Most offer advanced diagnostic testing (biomarker, genetic, hormonal, full-body MRIs, etc.), to identify issues before they become a problem, such as Fountain Life (whose heartbeat is AI-powered diagnostics) or Human Longevity Inc. (with genomics testing at its core). Others offer experimental, less-proven approaches such as stem cell treatments and plasma exchange—and the usual biohacking/recovery treatments (IV drips, cryotherapy, ozone therapy, etc.)—but now in the name of longevity. More high-end gyms (such as Saint Haven in Melbourne) are becoming full-blown longevity clinics, offering work-ups (preventative diagnostic testing, scans, etc.) along with their workouts. If wellness resorts have been more about “soul” than scans and stem cells, now a growing number are becoming highly-medical longevity destinations. Powerhouse medical-longevity players such as Spain’s SHA Wellness and Switzerland’s Clinique La Prairie are on the march, the latter planning 40 new urban “longevity hubs.” Soulful brand Six Senses is opening medical-longevity clubs (called Rosebar), with everything from epigenetic testing to stem cell therapy. More wellness resorts, like Italy’s Borgo Egnazia and Thailand’s Kamalaya Koh Samui, will embrace lo-fi longevity, offering Blue Zones retreats that get their guests connecting, cooking and moving like the people who live the longest in the world. In 2024, a further avalanche of clinics, travel destinations and tools will try to help you live longer and better. But we’ll also start asking some hard questions. About access: with uber-expensive clinics/solutions, are we entering a future where only the poor age? How can most people afford to live to 130? What is the impact of a “never die” mindset on our mental health and on the death-acceptance movement? A Wellness Check for Weight Loss Drugs The wellness industry was shaken up with the arrival of Big Pharma’s new, extremely effective GLP-1-inhibiting weight-loss drugs, the Ozempics and Mounjaros. They upended traditional behavior-change approaches to weight loss, recasting weight loss as a matter of biology rather than psychology and “willpower.” They quickly created challenges for behavior-change-focused businesses, whether dieting platforms, gyms, or wellness resorts. A big driver of the wellness market has always been weight loss, once more explicitly, and now more tacitly, as it became a dirty word after hard-fought body positivity gains. The new “magic pricks” quickly ripped open the weight loss Pandora’s box, and their impact on the world and wellness world will only become more intense in 2024. The number of people taking them has skyrocketed, resulting in ongoing global shortages. At least 70 new drugs are in development, with new, cheaper, very effective ones like Zepbound hitting the market this year. With people clamoring for the drugs, the trend covers how more wellness/health companies quickly pivoted to the (profitable) path of prescribing them, whether direct-to-consumer telemedicine brands like Ro or Found, or weight-loss platforms like WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and Noom. There is so much debate around the drugs and the companies making such moves. Proponents argue they could end the global obesity epidemic and save millions of lives; critics question their long-term health impacts, how they reinforce discriminatory ideals that “thin equals healthy,” and that, while they’re super-effective, they cannot deliver holistic health: exercise, healthy food, mental wellness, are still needed. In 2024, we predict the wellness world will start to interrogate how it could actually provide (not in name only) more honest, fully integrative, whole-health weight-loss approaches (spanning everything from nutrition coaching to fitness to mental health services to advanced metabolic health analysis), while also creating specific “wellness companion” programs for the drug-takers. The future: evidence-based methods that could help get people off these “forever” drugs and that specifically improve their health while on them. Sports Finds Its Footing in Hospitality After decades of fitness meaning lonely solo sessions at the gym, more people globally are embracing social, empowering sports (see: the pickleball explosion)—and more people want to train like near-elite athletes. At the same time, pro, collegiate, and even competitive junior athletes, constantly traveling to compete, have sorely lacked hospitality destinations that deliver wellness, recovery treatments and state-of-the-art gym equipment. It’s strange how much “sports” has been left out of the hospitality equation, but that’s now changing. Hospitality destinations are answering the call with everything from pro trainers to pro-level facilities—and if the global sports hospitality market was last valued at $4.75 billion, we think it will boom. More high-end wellness destinations are catering to recreational athletes who are serious about their sport, letting guests train and learn from their sports idols. Body Holiday in St. Lucia now features nine sports-themed months, led by pro athletes like NFL star Randy Moss and Olympians like Daley Thompson, Alix Klineman and Angie Akers, to let people up their running, swimming, and crewing game. In 2024, Aman Resorts is unveiling fitness, performance and recovery retreats led by five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova. New hospitality brands are squarely aimed at elite athletes, offering nth-degree wellness, fitness and recovery programming. Equinox Hotels plans 33 properties, and will next open in Saudi Arabia’s extraordinary Amaala wellness destination, with a pro-level gym, personal trainers, brain-stimulating tech to boost performance, and the full recovery menu, from cryo chambers to on-demand IV drips. Siro, a mind-blowing fitness and recovery hotel concept, opening its first property SIRO One Za’abeel next month in Dubai, optimizes everything (from rooms to food) for athletes of all levels, but is especially aimed at pros—from its vast gym designed by Olympic athletes to its incredible Recovery Lab. Sports tourism (people traveling to watch events) is a massive market, but more destinations are moving people from spectators to sports participants. The 2024 Paris Olympics will host a pre-Games marathon for regular folks so they can experience the thrill of the course. This summer’s Tour de France will, for the first time, open up new cycling routes near the course, so biking enthusiasts can jump in. Hospitality groups are thinking beyond “training like an athlete” and actually organizing competitive play: swimmers, runners, and tennis and pickleball players really want to compete with people at their level. So, in 2024, add a new category to the tourism lexicon: sports-meets-wellness travel. The Home as Highest-Tech-Health-Hub Wellness-focused homes have been a megatrend for years, with a big focus on amenities like meditation rooms and cold plunge pools. Now homes, and even cities, are becoming highest-tech, multifaceted health hubs. The shift is unprecedented, involving everything from the rise of medical-grade home health-monitoring systems to smart furnishings that adjust in real-time to individual wellbeing needs. In a post-pandemic era marked by increased time spent at home, health-at-home is taking bold new directions. The trend includes “Home Health Care,” where homes are becoming advanced “outpatient” care centers powered by digital health services—from fully-integrated telehealth to new health monitoring and diagnostic technology, reducing reliance on in-person interactions with practitioners. There is so much innovation in using M-health (mobile health) for home healthcare. For example, the just-released foneDX (from electronRX) uses existing smartphone sensors and a user interface app to measure a person’s critical heart and lung health right at home. In the next five years, 45% of healthcare services are expected to be delivered at home. Cities are becoming high-tech health hubs. In Saudi Arabia’s hotly-anticipated new smart city NEOM (unfolding in 2025), the futuristic healthcare system Dr. NEOM continuously collects health data from the population and houses it in a “digital twin” file of every resident. With this wealth of information, the system can precisely customize health and wellness interventions, and even predict health issues before they occur. It’s the city-as-wearable. Sensory-enhanced design is moving far beyond wellness concepts like feng shui and biophilic interiors. A new generation of textiles mean the very fabrics surrounding us at home will come alive as interactive interfaces. Companies like Getsound.ai and Endel are creating personalized bio-soundscapes grounded in our real-time biometric and environmental data. Our homes will ultimately evolve into multifaceted ecosystems, merging advanced nanotechnology and empathetic architecture to create living spaces that capture our biometrics to create environments dynamically extending from our own psyches. The home as high-tech health hub is a futuristic trend within the wellness real estate sector, the fastest-growing wellness market of all: now worth $398 billion and forecast to grow to $887.5 billion by 2027. A New Multisensory, Immersive Art for Wellness Art used to be a passive experience: you stare at a painting, or have lunch next to a sculpture garden. But no more. As newly tech-enabled artists—powered by innovations such as generative AI, projection mapping and spatial sound technologies—bring their craft to the mainstream, we’re entering an era of multi-sensory, wildly immersive art. Beyond a simple gaze, this next-gen art allows us to engage all of our senses and to participate, and is expressly designed to transform our mental wellbeing. Museums, hotels and spas are incorporating more and more multisensory art experiences into their offerings and, in doing so, are prioritizing wellness as an integrated offering. Case in point: the Mandala Lab at the Rubin Museum in New York City combines video, scent, sculpture, and sound based on Buddhist principles into one holistic, spiritual exhibit. At the Termemilano spa in Milan, Italy, a video skyscape of stormy skies surrounds a hydro pool, creating an unmatched moody vibe. Six Senses resorts are creating multisensory somatic experiences, like bio-alchemy sculptures infused with scents, flotation experiences suffused with ocean sounds, or geodesic domes with vibroacoustic floors. Multisensory, immersive art is becoming incredibly widespread in public places. From installations that dot cityscapes to AI-driven art in hospitals that utilize facial screening software to deliver audio-visuals based on your emotions. In the future, as adoption of wearable technologies becomes widespread, generative artworks will become even more hyper-personalized, participatory and therapeutically effective. Adaptive art will continue to take hold and push the boundaries of what sensory immersion and art-as-wellness can mean. Under the Radar At each annual Global Wellness Summit, delegates from around the world gather for four days of top-level insights. Because of its global nature and collection of diverse thought-leaders from the health and wellness world, it’s an incubator of new ideas. Many of these new ideas were the springboard for trends in this report, but GWS Chair and CEO Susie Ellis always notes interesting new directions also discussed that might be under the radar now but have the potential to become trends. This year, for the first time, Susie shares some of her emerging themes to watch. One key theme was for the wellness world to work harder at destigmatizing mental health issues and at creating new solutions, given the skyrocketing global rates of mental unwellness. Simone Biles’ keynote framed this huge issue, chronicling how mental struggles necessitated her withdrawal from the 2020 Olympics, and calling for a world where you could wear a “helmet on your head” to safely signal mental issues just as a cast does for a broken leg. The need for more mental wellness solutions percolated across the Summit. Amy McDonald (CEO, Under a Tree Consultancy) argued that with teens worldwide struggling mightily with mental health, we must lower age limits at wellness centers and spas, so they can benefit from evidence-based healing treatments, and properties like Qatar’s Zulal Wellness Resort have already risen to the occasion. There were very new ideas, such as Anjan Chattergee, MD, professor of neurology, University of Pennsylvania’s research into “slow looking,” how looking at an art piece for 15 minutes (rather than a few seconds) results in eye-opening impact on the brain. Another mega theme: governments embracing more innovative, powerful wellness policies. “Un-GDP” was discussed, with more governments moving beyond money-focused—in favor of quality-of-life—metrics to gauge national wellbeing. Through world-leading health/wellness policies, Singapore has dramatically improved its citizens’ health and longevity, which is why it was just named the sixth Blue Zone. This marks a new future of “Blue Zones 2.0,” where communities actively engineer environments that make it “natural” to make healthy choices. Keynote speaker Sophie Howe, the first Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, explained the crucial role policy must play in protecting the lives and health of those who will be born 50 years from now. Deborah Birx, MD, introduced the concept of “wellness diplomacy,” which could bring a divisive world together to collaborate on prevention. As for other things to watch? Dive into the other under-the-radar themes.

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  • Global News

  2024-01-31

• Halal Certification Achieved: The Farm at San Benito Commended by the Department of Tourism for Inclusivity

  The Farm at San Benito proudly has announced its recent attainment of Halal certification, marking a significant step towards becoming a globally recognized inclusive healing sanctuary. The Philippines’ Department of Tourism (DOT) commends The Farm at San Benito for its dedication to providing diverse and culturally sensitive experiences, creating a haven for all guests. “Having The Farm at San Benito as one of Department of Tourism’s partners in Halal and Muslim-friendly Tourism spells great news for the entire industry. The Farm offers a holistic wellness experience that is a reflection of our unique and vibrant national identity, and their efforts in keeping our Muslim brothers and sisters as top of mind is definitely commendable. We are hoping for more valuable partnerships, and for The Farm to be one of the flagbearers of the Filipino brand of Halal and Muslim-friendly Wellness Tourism,” said DOT Undersecretary Myra Paz Valderossa-Abubakar. In response to the increasing demand for Muslim-friendly destinations, The Farm at San Benito has not only achieved Halal certification for ALIVE! Vegan Restaurant but also as a Muslim-friendly accommodation destination offering villas for our Muslim brothers and sisters. The Farm aims to provide a harmonious balance between luxury, cultural sensitivity, and holistic well-being. The Department of Tourism, as well as the local government celebrate The Farm at San Benito's commitment to fostering inclusivity and applauds its innovative approach to creating a healing sanctuary for guests of all backgrounds. The resort's Muslim friendly certified villas stand as a testament to its dedication to providing an exceptional, culturally enriched, and inclusive experience.

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  • Global News

  2024-01-23

• The Global Wellness Economy Reaches a Record $5.6 Trillion—And It’s Forecast to Hit $8.5 Trillion by 2027

  How has the global wellness economy fared since the massive economic shocks of the pandemic? According to a new report released on 7th by the non-profit Global Wellness Institute (GWI)—the only authoritative, comprehensive source of wellness market data—the industry has made one powerful recovery. If the market was worth a record $4.9 trillion in 2019, and then shrank 11% to $4.4 trillion in the pandemic year of 2020, the research indicates that the wellness economy has seen recent, economy-defying momentum. It grew 27% since 2020 to reach $5.6 trillion, with 7 of the 11 wellness sectors now surpassing their 2019, pre-pandemic values. With consumers, the medical world, and governments now placing a much bigger value on prevention and wellness, the GWI forecasts that the wellness economy will grow at an impressive 8.6% annual pace through 2027, when the market will reach $8.5 trillion—nearly double its 2020 size. “We are surprised by the resiliency of the global wellness economy, and how quickly it has bounced back from the pandemic. It has exceeded our own expectations and forecasts,” said Katherine Johnston, GWI senior research fellow. “If the pandemic disrupted industry momentum in the short term, it has simultaneously created a dramatic shift in the long-term opportunities and trajectory for wellness.” “The Global Wellness Economy 2023” is packed with insights: numbers and analysis for all 11 wellness sectors, regional data, the top-20 national markets for each wellness sector, while exploring the major shifts and trends that will impact each wellness market in the future. The GWI has announced it will now release a Global Wellness Economy Report annually, at each Global Wellness Summit. Its “Country Rankings Report,” companion research providing market size, rankings, analysis, and per capita wellness spending for 150 nations, will be released on January 30, 2024.

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  • Global News

  2023-11-08

• The Global Wellness Summit Relocates 2023 Annual Conference to Miami, FL, Ensuring the Safety and Continuity of Event

  Hyatt Regency Miami The Global Wellness Summit (GWS), the most prestigious conference on the $4.4 trillion business of wellness, has announced the relocation of its highly anticipated, 17th annual conference. In light of recent developments and growing concerns surrounding instability in the Middle East region, GWS has made the difficult but necessary decision to relocate the 2023 event from Doha, Qatar to Miami, Florida. Despite the change in location to the Grand Hyatt Miami, the dates for the Summit remain unchanged, taking place from November 6-9, 2023. “The decision to move the conference to Miami comes in response to recent developments in the Middle East region and with the safety of delegates, speakers, team members, and partners in mind,” said Nancy Davis, chief creative officer & executive director at GWS. “This decision was made in close coordination with Msheireb Properties, our host sponsors in Qatar, and we appreciate all they are doing to make this transition as smooth as possible. We look forward to bringing the Summit to Qatar in the next couple of years.” GWS is grateful for the continued support and understanding of all stakeholders involved and looks forward to welcoming participants to the vibrant city of Miami. Delegates can expect the same robust three-day agenda, including in-person conversations with headliners such as Simone Biles, the world’s greatest gymnast, who will share how a focus on mental wellness is the key to her extraordinary resilience and success, and Grammy Award-winning producer and artist, Timbaland, who will share his powerful wellness journey. For more information or to register for the 2023 Global Wellness Summit, please visit www.globalwellnesssummit.com.

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  • Global News

  2023-10-18

실시간 Global News 기사

• The Global Wellness Summit Predicts '8 Wellness Trends for 2019'

  Experts predict the future: from the rise of a “dying well” movement and wellness remaking the fashion industry to “meditation going plural” and scent playing a more dramatic role in our emotional health When 650 wellness experts from 50 nations gather to debate the future of wellness, a uniquely informed and global view of trends unfolds. That’s what transpired at the recent Global Wellness Summit (GWS), which brought together leaders from the medical, travel, spa, beauty, fitness, nutrition, technology, financial and architecture worlds to debate where wellness is headed. Recently, at a press event held at Hearst Tower in NYC and hosted by Good Housekeeping, the organization released their top wellness trends for 2019 (and beyond)—the provocative new directions they feel will have the most meaningful—and not fleeting—impact on the $4.2 trillion global wellness industry. 1. Well Fashion – Way Beyond Athleisure ▲ Photo Courtesy by GWS It’s striking how little attention has been paid to the intersection between “wellness” and “fashion” beyond the familiar story of athleisure disrupting the market. And how few people that are wellness/eco-minded (who have a mini-stroke if served a plastic straw) have really grappled with their overconsumption of clothes and the insanely destructive environmental impact that has. Or pondered the negative ways that fashion impacts their wellbeing or imagined the positive ways that it could. It’s impossible to overstate the disastrous effect that the “take-make-dispose” fashion industry has on the environment and humans: workers paid 50 cents an hour, three in five garments bought getting chucked within a year, and an industry spewing 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. If nothing changes, fashion will eat up over 25 percent of the world’s entire carbon budget by 2050! Every touch-point in the cycle—how clothes/shoes are designed, made, acquired, cared for, experienced and disposed of—has been broken. But 2019 will be the pivotal year for change, with a huge wave of sustainable, ethical, intelligent, healing, more inclusive, and meaningful fashion on the rise. A more “well” fashion market and mindset is ahead. We’ll see radical innovation in sustainable textiles, with clothing/shoes made from recycled plastic bottles, algae, mushrooms and food waste. More vegan, cruelty-free fashion, with alt-fur, alt-leather, alt-everything collections that are trendier than the real thing. New AI and 3D design technologies mean the future is an on-demand, custom-created-for-you wardrobe (vs. spray-and-pray, generic overproduction). If manufacturing is a mean, faceless business, more ethical fashion brands will provide transparency into how they treat—and even celebrate by name—the artisans that created your wardrobe. Buy-and-trash culture is giving way to a recycle and re-wear revolution: from brands rewarding you for bringing in all those dead dresses to a surge in online luxury used fashion platforms and those that let you rent your entire wardrobe to a vintage renaissance. We’ll even see all-digital fashion collections designed to be exclusively strutted online at social media sites. The next-gen of smart, connected and healing clothes that actively boost your wellbeing is straight ahead. New technologies mean that fitness wearables will move seamlessly into clothing while self-regulating fabrics will adapt to all kinds of environmental and bodily changes (heat, cold, air flow, movement, UV rays, etc.). We’ll see antibacterial clothes that clean themselves, collagen-infused clothes that moisturize your body all day, clothes that broadcast your mood, pajamas that help you sleep—even clothes weaving in “ancient wellness,” such as lines suffused with Ayurvedic medicinal plants. And more brands will rip off the constricting “labels,” such as “plus-sized” and “man/woman” to create clothes that are truly inclusive around body shape and gender identity. 2019: the year more people trade in the addictive endorphins of manic fashion consumption for the serotonin (true happiness) of choosing clothes that are sustainable, ethical, actively healing and meaningful—one of the most impactful wellness trends we’ve ever seen. 2. Wellness Takes on Overtourism ▲ Photo Courtesy by GWS Overtourism—when a crush of tourists overwhelms a destination—is the #1 issue in the travel industry today, making headlines everywhere. With the growth in wealth worldwide, international travel is exploding, with annual trips jumping from 500 million in 1995 to 1.3 billion today. The problem is that this tourism expansion is hyper-concentrated: Roughly half of all travelers go to just 100 global destinations; everyone wants to see the Mona Lisa and Machu Picchu, the Ginza in Tokyo and Venice’s canals. The damage to those destinations’ infrastructure and environment (and to their residents’ lives) is a terrible wellness issue: from pollution and noisy, garbage-filled landscapes to the destruction of local heritage and culture to pricing locals out of the property market. And it’s not well or pleasant for the tourist, as you know if you’ve ever jockeyed for a selfie with 10,000 other manic people swarming the Trevi Fountain. It will take a full-court press of solutions from governments and tourism boards—and a real consumer mindset change—to attack overtourism and start spreading travelers to alternative regions and attractions. Wellness tourism will be one key antidote: Not only are the majority of wellness resorts, by nature, in nature (off the crowded, beaten path) but now a growing number of national tourism boards are smartly launching initiatives to combat overtourism (and reduce seasonality) by developing new wellness destinations. To fight the nightmare of overtourism in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the country is developing a Wellness & Spa Tourism Zone in Varaždinske Toplice, an area with centuries of hot springs bathing and other wellness traditions. Japan is developing new wellness tourism routes to coax travelers away from the congested Kyoto-Osaka-Tokyo corridor, such as the Dragon Route in the Chebu region, rich in history and hot springs, and the village of Misugi kicking off a wellness travel initiative that lures travelers for stargazing, forest bathing and beer onsens. Many more examples are underway, and it’s going to mean more unique, newly developed wellness destinations for travelers. As cities get bombarded by tourists, more travelers will crave healing, serene oases in metropolises, so another major trend is the rise of the urban wellness resort. It seems counterintuitive, but some of the world’s top wellness travel brands are moving beyond their roots in idyllic locations to set up shop in big cities. And by “setting up shop” we mean deep, mindbogglingly comprehensive wellness programming served up to both hotel guests and locals. The first One&Only Urban Resorts will soon open in Dubai, a “well” challenge to what a city hotel could be; famed Balinese wellness resort Fivelements will launch a creative urban wellness retreat in Hong Kong this year. Six Senses opens in NYC in 2020, where its first Six Senses Place (bringing together hotel guests and local members in a social wellness community) will offer a dizzying menu of beyond-cutting-edge wellness approaches. Eco and sustainable tourism are important movements, but the imperative to stop overtourism seems to be resonating more. As Rafat Ali, CEO of Skift, has noted (who coined the term “overtourism”), overtourism speaks to people’s self-interest and fears rather than just their altruism. More overtourism-fighting moves by tourism boards and hospitality brands are ahead, but “Choose Undertourism” needs to become a wellness movement and rallying cry. (And millennials/Gen Z will help, broadcasting the #JOMO (joy of missing out) they experience in exotic, lesser-known travel destinations.) 3. Meditation Goes Plural ▲ Photo Courtesy by GWS Meditation will evolve from a singular to a plural practice, from a generic concept to understanding specific types and their unique brain impacts, just as this explosive market blooms—like yoga and boutique fitness before it—into many varieties. If it sometimes feels like we’ve reached peak mindfulness and meditation, we haven’t. After years of talk, now people are actually doing it (i.e., it’s the fastest-growing health trend in the US). But the growth in people practicing has been matched by profound confusion around the very concepts of “meditation” and “mindfulness” (which also infects medical studies): They get used interchangeably when the research shows that, while there are hundreds of meditation breeds, there are three core types/mechanisms: 1) focused attention (clearing the mind of thoughts), 2) open monitoring (which includes mindfulness meditation), and 3) self-transcending (involving silent mantras). Each is a different practice, activating different brain waves and neuroplastic changes and leading to different outcomes. More clinical trials will study these core types head-to-head and more people will grasp that different meditation practices can help them reach different goals—whether you’ve got a badly scattered mind or need a creative breakthrough. The future? It’s not either/or it’s yes/and—as meditation becomes a plural toolbox for mental wellness. Meditation will “go plural” in a whole other way. If you used to take that “meditation class,” now ancient and modern varieties will multiply in 2019—whether straight-out-of-Europe sophrology (marrying Eastern meditation practices with Western relaxation concepts) or Kundalini yoga (an ancient, spiritual mash-up of chanted mantra, breathing techniques and movement). “Mindful fitness” brands will surge, where you move with intention or where workouts work in meditation sessions—just as mindful spa experiences will get more creative. More mindful apps and new drop-in meditation studios and wellness centers/clubs (all booming) will become one-stop shops with jaw-droppingly full meditation menus. A flurry of “meditation technologies” will boost—as well as hack—the meditation experience, using tech-like biofeedback, EEG/brain wave tracking and transcranial direct current stimulation. The Muse 2 headband tracks your brain patterns, heartbeat and movement to optimize your meditation session in real-time while Healium, a virtual reality headset, translates your brainwaves and heartbeat into personal visual meditations. The wellness market always pushes the “next” button (“like, meditation is so 2015”). But the meditation research and market is extremely young and just approaching an adoption and conceptual tipping-point (and there’s no expiration date on 5,000-year-old solutions). The future is meditations, more types tailored to what you need most. 4. Prescribing Nature ▲ Photo Courtesy by GWS Imagine going to your doctor, and instead of a prescription for some pharmaceutical, you received a prescription for a 30-minute walk in nature. This is not far-fetched. Put down the Prozac and pick up your walking shoes. This is happening all over the world, and it’s only going to become more prevalent. As people continue to be overworked and overwrought, they will answer the call of nature, so to speak. And it’s a call that comes from deep within, according to scientists who have been studying this. Nature Deficit Disorder has taken hold, and it’s real—this 24/7, digitally dominated, Instagram-able world is depriving humankind of some very basic, very important nourishment that comes from being outdoors. Much has been written about the evils (and glories) of technology, but the resulting dissociation from our natural surroundings leaves us emotionally and physically worse off. We are bereft of nature. Our bodies—and our minds—need nature. And as more evidence becomes available in mainstream media, more people will seek this “treatment,” and more physicians will be prescribing it. And the price is right, as it doesn’t cost anything to take a walk outside. A growing number of doctors are “medicalizing nature” because of the medical evidence for its benefits: from the National Health Service in Shetland, Scotland, recently rolling out a whole “nature prescription” program to the pioneering Washington, D.C. program DC Park RX started by Dr. Robert Zarr to Dr. Qing Li at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, whose work on the eye-opening benefits of forest bathing have helped create 62 designated forest bathing therapy centers in Japan used by 5 million people a year. The medical evidence for doses of nature is wide-ranging, from a study by the European Society of Cardiology finding that a brisk walk outdoors daily for 25 minutes could add at least three years to your life to others finding it helps repair DNA and reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis and certain cancers. It’s powerful medicine for our minds too, with studies indicating walks in nature engage the “default mode” brain network associated with stress-reduction and a boost in cognition, creativity and short-term memory. Beyond formal nature prescriptions, this trend also spans a serious “back to nature” shift happening across the wellness world, from the rise of “green exercise” (in-nature workouts) offered at more fitness studios, such as the UK’s Biofit, to the continued surge in bringing nature and biophilic design into our homes, schools, offices and hospitals to the nonstop growth in forest bathing programs at wellness travel destinations—whether the luxe new ski resort Le Massif in the French Alps or at the Oberoi Sukhvilas wellness resort in India. Look for nature to be a much-more-prescribed antidote for what ails us. 5. MediScent: Fragrance Gets a Wellness Makeover ▲ Photo Courtesy by GWS The sense of smell is having a wellness renaissance. Once dismissed as the least relevant of the five senses, today, evidence-based studies around scent’s powerful impact on our physical and emotional wellbeing are being released fast and furiously. At the same time, new aromas are being discovered, including Glossier You’s personalized perfumes to enhance your own skin’s scent. New scent-based applications and products are being announced, such as Aeroscena’s gel pods diffusers that are used not only for feel good, functional scents in homes and offices but are also being tested as alternatives to pharmaceuticals in medical trials. And there is much innovation in how we harness the power of scent, such as Scentee’s smart diffuser that lets you change up scents from your smartphone. There are candles and oils to evoke a precise sense of place (to trigger positive memories) and scents used as mental wellness supplements (Nue Co. is marketing an anti-stress supplement as fragrance). Art installations, such as Jean-Marc Chaillan’s Mood Cloud, are exploring the not too far-fetched concept of melding wellness with big data, using microsensors that measure stress levels and showering calming aromas over stressed-out parts of a city. There’s simply ever more research that scent impacts cognitive health, such as the discovery that tasting and smelling wine works the brain harder than a math problem. Scent is being used as no-cal flavoring (SZENT is already selling water flavored with fragrance); restaurants are creating scent-based menus; and luxury hotels, including a recently opened Fendi hotel in Rome, are empowering guests to personalize their room’s aroma from a scent menu. As studies show that smell registers in our brains first—before sight, sound or touch—more marketers are employing scent to make us spend more time and money, while all kinds of product designers are focusing on scent as they bring new products to market. NanoScent, an Israel-based start-up, is trying to turn our smartphones into “scent catchers” and has developed a matchmaking app that uses scent to help identify suitable mates (based on the same technology that detects breast cancer by recognizing changes in the tissue’s smell). We expect that the neuroscience of scent will become more pervasive in everything we do, and fragrances will be used in ways we would never have dreamed of—both in public and personal spaces. 6. China – Uncovering the Wealth in Wellness ▲ Photo Courtesy by GWS No country will have a bigger impact on the future global wellness economy than China, suddenly an economic, political and tech powerhouse. To grasp this impact, you have to expand your brain’s notions of scale. With a population of 1.4 billion, China’s middle class will skyrocket from 430 million today to 780 million by 2025. The country already drives more than half of all global e-commerce. Wrap your mind around China’s outbound travel growth, which has expanded 20-fold since 2000—now at 145 million international trips annually, to rise to 200 million in two years, and then doubling to 400 million by 2030 (when China will represent 30 percent of the entire international travel market). China is undergoing a wellness (and beauty) revolution; one could cite hundreds of stats. Over 70 percent of its middle class exercise regularly and purchase organic food, 104 million Chinese have at least one fitness app on their phones, and China accounts for 41 percent of all global cosmetic procedures. Chinese tourists will rewrite the wellness travel market: They’re now rejecting the old shopping/sightseeing tours to embrace authentic cultural and wellness experiences. (China is the fastest-growing wellness tourism market, jumping to third globally in lightning-fast time). With overpopulation and record-high pollution, the wellness real estate market is booming (now 2nd globally) with amazing projects, such as Liuzhou Forest City with its smog-eating facades covered by nearly 40,000 trees. The wellness boom in China is being driven by forces like the roaring “she-conomy” (incredible growth in women’s spending power) and the fact that so many more Chinese are now seeking their authentic roots and a spiritual purpose in life. The country is also facing a health crisis—from an unsupported aging population to ballooning obesity rates—and the government has launched a super-ambitious “Healthy China 2030” initiative with wellness targets such as having 530 million more people take part in regular exercise. China’s indigenous wellness traditions and unique destinations will increasingly grab the world’s attention, from new, authentic wellness travel destinations to its 425,000 TCM practitioners to its Buddhist and Taoist spiritual cuisine. Wellness hospitality leaders like Alila, Aman, Banyan Tree and Six Senses have recently launched sophisticated, authentic wellness resorts in China, such as Amanyangyun near Shanghai, a vast wellness destination with a unique focus on ancient Chinese culture and holistic healing. More people will seek temple getaways, where they reset their mental wellness and diet with Buddhist, Confucian and Taoist gurus. More will seek to experience TCM at its birthplace, such as at visa-free Hainan Island, an emerging TCM and wellness tourism hotspot. (TCM will be implemented by the World Health Organization in 2022, and China plans 15 more TCM destination “zones” like Hainan by 2020.) More people will become fascinated by Chinese spiritual cuisine, an extraordinarily poetic, creative and refined form of vegetarian dining. Napoleon famously said, “When China wakes…she will shake the world.” She will certainly shake the future wellness world. ▲ Photo Courtesy by GWS 7. Nutrition Gets Very Personalized What we put in our bodies—whether it’s food, drink or supplements—has never been more scrutinized. Many would argue that this obsessional focus—from where our food is sourced to its nutritional content to the rise of vegan, dairy-free and gluten-free diets to the growing food tribes of keto, paleo and the like—has led to a healthier population. Not if your mind boggles every time you consider putting something in your mouth, or you’re not getting the nutrients your body needs because you’ve limited certain foods, or if your weight yo-yos every time you try the “next, best” weight loss experiment. Enter the age of personalized nutrition where science, low-cost medical testing and new technologies identify what foods are right just for us—not only for weight management but, more importantly, to boost overall health and wellbeing. This includes companies such as Habit and Nutrigenomix, which rely on blood and DNA analyses to specify what foods are right for you. Or companies such as Baze that focus solely on helping individuals meet their personal nutritional needs (appealing to specific food tribe members who are worried they aren’t getting all the right nutrients) by providing supplements based on blood work conducted every three months. The newly launched Onegevity Health adds microbiome analysis to the mix and promises to deliver personalized products and services that support skin health, cognition, heart health and sports performance. New devices, such as Lumen, which uses your CO2 to measure how you’re burning fuel and suggests which foods you should eat, are now available to help you understand exactly which nutrients your body needs. AI-powered apps, such as Pinto and Calorie Mama, let you know what exact nutrients and calories are sitting on the plate in front of you. As “one-size-fits-all” health and wellness practices fall by the wayside and the understanding of epigenetics—the study of how our genes are shaped by our behavior—grows, personalized nutrition will hit the mainstream in increasingly surprising ways, such as Gatorade’s chip-enabled skin patch that measures hydration so its drinks can deliver exactly what that athlete needs. In the near future, we will know much more about what the enormous ecosystem inside each of us is telling us, including how much exercise you really need to how our bodies react to specific nutrients. Fad diet confusion, new tech, and the “power of me” will propel personalized nutrition into the mainstream. 8. Dying Well ▲ Photo Courtesy by GWS It’s difficult to present a trend with “dying” in the title; most people’s response: “Oh no, not relevant to me, I’ll skip.” It’s symptomatic of our modern death-denying culture where the (f)act of death is hidden and terrifying. If until the early 20th century people died at home surrounded by loved ones, Western medicine has since made it a coldly clinical affair in a hospital or nursing home. The funeral industry then co-opted the management of our dead, and with a decline in formal religion, healing communal rituals got lost. And two very modern forces are complicit in exacerbating the death-denial problem: a Silicon Valley biotech industry that aims to “cure death” and radically extend life—and the wellness market itself, with its endless don’t-age, never-die messages. But suddenly a “death positive” movement is here with everything around death and dying getting rethought through a more “well” lens: from making the dying process more humane to the radical reinvention of the memorial and funeral to active death exploration/acceptance practices becoming part of a mentally healthy life. Death doulas, wellness practitioners that fill that yawning gap in care between medicine and hospice, families and fear—and who are dedicated to delivering better, more meaningful and peaceful deaths—are gaining serious traction around the world. With rising evidence for psychedelic magic mushrooms’ power to relieve the emotional distresses of those facing end-of-life, psilocybin looks to be a bigger part of the future “dying well” toolbox (and researchers predict it could become legal medicine in five years). Funerals are becoming less gloomily formal, fixed and funereal and more deeply personal: from the rise of celebratory “living funerals” to the return of the creative home funeral. As people become aware of how environmentally toxic traditional embalmment, burial and cremation is, we’re seeing some seriously out-of-the-box, eco-friendly “burial” options: from mushroom burial suits lined with flesh-eating fungi that speed your return to nature to biodegradable burial egg-pods where your body/ashes grow the tree you most want to become. Research shows that denying death can cause serious mental issues, so more people are actively exploring death as a wellness practice, and many more online platforms, classes, festivals and events are meeting the hunger to just talk about it, such as “death cafes” now held in 64 countries. More people are exploring alternative wisdom and practices around death from cultures worldwide, whether guided death meditations at Zen Buddhist centers or studying the ancient Roman Stoics’ death acceptance techniques (the Stoics are really trending now) or just downloading the WeCroak app, pinging you five times daily with Tibetan meditations reminding you that you will die. People are even traveling to have the caring and spiritual death they seek. There’s more positive movement around death and dying in the last few years than in the last 150. The future: a “better death” becomes an integral part of a “well life.”

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  • Global News

  2019-01-31

• Cunard Rolls Out New Spa Concept

  Cunard Line has announced Mareel Wellness & Beauty: a new spa concept developed in partnership with Canyon Ranch. Mareel will launch exclusively onboard Queen Elizabeth this December 2018, closely followed by Queen Victoria and on the Queen Mary 2 in November 2020. "The new brand will offer a holistic approach with an extended spa treatment menu of mineral-rich seawater and marine-based experiences as well as a redesign of the entire spa facility," Cunard said, in a press release. "The new spa decor will bring to life the magic of the ocean in hues of blue, green and pale coral, creating a sanctuary of calm where guests can soak up the sea’s transformational energy." New offerings on Queen Elizabeth include couples suite for seaweed bathing rituals; a meditation room with acoustic resonance loungers; a redesigned multifunctional fitness center and studio space and sound therapy facilities in every treatment room. The "Ocean Discovery" will launch as the signature treatment featuring organic marine-based products from VOYA sustainably harvested in Western Ireland. An entire range of ocean inspired massage, body and alternative treatments will also launch and will complement the aqua therapy center harnessing the healing power of water, according to a press release. In addition, a new range of luxury products will be introduced, all selected to offer socially responsible production techniques with organic ingredients that are sustainably harvested, wild-picked, biodynamic and toxin-free including Red Flower, Shankara and Environ. Mareel will also feature enhanced wellness experiences across the ship’s daily activity program including stretch and daily meditation videos shown on stateroom TVs, wellness seminars, and outdoor dance and yoga classes. “We are thrilled to debut our new collaboration with Canyon Ranch, Mareel Wellness & Beauty, onboard the recently enhanced Queen Elizabeth, said Josh Leibowitz, SVP Cunard North America. “Cunard’s first-ever, uniquely conceived spa concept will offer our discerning guests a new level of luxury wellness at sea - only on Cunard.”

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  • Global News

  2018-12-31

• Cannabis is Already Disrupting these Top Global Industries

  Cannabis is quickly becoming one of the most industry-disruptive forces. In fact, multi-billion-dollar industries are already being uprooted by cannabis, including beverages, alcohol, beer, sports drinks, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, and the $3.2 trillion wellness industry, as the cultural renaissance just gets underway. All thanks to growing acceptance following Canada's October 2018 legalization, broad approval for its recreational and medicinal use throughout the U.S., and corporate interest. It's just starting to disrupt countless, multi-billion-dollar industries. One of those industries is the $4.2 trillion wellness industry. The healing properties of marijuana are why spa, wellness and skincare industries are introducing a range of products with cannabis as a key ingredient. According to an A.T. Kearney consumer survey, 80% of respondents believe cannabis products can offer wellness or therapeutic benefits. Up to 43% would try therapeutic or supplemental cannabis-infused products. In addition, the survey found that food, vitamins, skincare products and non-alcoholic beverages were the most favored. Along the way, it's opening a ground-floor opportunity for investors in related stocks. The Yield Growth Corporation One such company is The Yield Growth Corporation (cse:BOSS), which aspires to become the next multi-billion wellness/cosmetics giant that emerges from the cannabis industry. Its hemp-based wellness brands could very well be disruptive to several sectors, including wellness, makeup and leisure. That could make The Yield Growth Corporation a potential acquisition target for larger companies, including Estee Lauder, and Procter & Gamble. The best part - with the completion of stability testing on nine new products, including sunscreen, lip gloss, pain balm, and body exfoliants, the company and its subsidiaries expect to have at least 22 products on sale throughout North America by April 2019. However, it's not the only multi-billion-dollar industry being disrupted The medical community is studying it for a variety of ailments - pain, nausea, loss of appetite, Parkinson's disease, inflammatory bowel disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis and even traumatic brain injuries - the list goes on. Cigarette maker Altria (MO) just took a 45% stake in Cronos Group CRON, +0.97%(CRON), as it diversifies business, as cigarette smoking falls to its lowest point in history. Companies such as Green Growth Brands (cse:GGB) (otcqb:GGBXF) will also benefit from its passage. For example, Green Growth, whose goal is to become North America's leading retailer of cannabis and CBD products, is about to market its hemp-derived CBD personal care products under its Seventh Sense Brand. While we're seeing incredible growth in industries, one of the biggest is the wellness industry. Cannabis-Infused Wellness Products are Being Launched in North America For example, The Yield Growth Corporation's wholly-owned subsidiary, Urban Juve Provisions, Inc. is a modern wellness brand, offering hand-crafted, daily use cosmetic and therapeutic products made of Cannabis Sativa hemp root oil, high quality essential oils and all-natural ingredients. Urban Juve is an Ayurveda-inspired skin care and beauty brand that rejuvenates and nourishes from within: spirit to skin. Urban Juve's key ingredient - cannabis sativa hemp root oil - combines with natural and pure essential oil-based formulations to create quality products that are now available online and will soon be available at select retail stores across Canada. Urban Juve has developed a proprietary method for hemp root oil extraction. The Urban Juve products are formulated to be infused with Cannabidiol (CBD) or Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Urban Juve has roughly 50 products set to enter the market in late 2018 and into 2019. The company has also submitted 26 products to Health Canada for approval. It completed 26 Health Canada registrations, and has already filed for 11 U.S. patent applications. Growth through Global Expansion In June 2018, The Yield Growth Corporation's Urban Juve granted exclusive distribution rights to wellness products in Italy for the next three years to Crop Infrastructure Corporation. Such an opportunity now gives The Yield Growth Corporation incredible exposure to the European cannabis market, as well. Thanks to its product development, and international growth, The Yield Growth Corporation could become a substantial disruptor to a $4.2 trillion global wellness industry. MarijuanaStox.com is a leading web destination for all cannabis related companies. Investors can also find current marijuana-related quality financial, medical, legal and social news. MarijuanaStox.com is a media agency in North America dedicated to the cannabis industry, helping companies that operate in the space to attract quality investors, working capital and real publicity. Since 2005, we have had public companies in the US and Canada have rely on us to grow and succeed.

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  • Global News

  2018-12-31

• 14th Annual AsiaSpa Awards Recognise the Industry’s Finest

  Hong Kong’s most anticipated spa and wellness event of the year, the 14th annual AsiaSpa Awards took place on November 15 at W Hong Kong with the glamorous occasion attended by representatives of the region’s outstanding brands. The 2018 Awards honoured nominees, industry icons and guests, for an evening themed ‘Tokyo Blue’. A panel of 20 judges selected the best in the business across 26 categories. Awards were presented to spas, hotels and resorts, retreats and products recognised for raising the bar of product and treatment standards. The elegant evening saw more than 400 professionals celebrate the winners who have demonstrated stellar products and services within the region’s best spas and resorts. These included Maia Spa, Fusion Maia, Da Nang City, Vietnam, which took home ‘Spa of the Year (Southeast Asia & the Pacific)’, while ‘Spa of the Year (North & West Asia)’ went to Chuan Spa, Cordis Hong Kong. Exception Marine, Thalgo was awarded ‘Anti-Ageing Product Line of the Year’, and MDNA Skin, MDNA Skin was recognised as ‘Natural Product Line of the Year’. Gaya Island Resort, Sabah, Malaysia, received ‘Destination Hotel/Resort of the Year’, while The Sukhothai Shanghai, China, was ‘Urban Hotel of the Year’. “This year’s AsiaSpa Awards are even more special because we’re celebrating the magazine’s 15th anniversary. We’re really proud of the staying power we have in the publishing world as an authority on all things spa and wellness in the region. It’s encouraging to see the commitment to improvement in the industry with so many professionals who are genuinely passionate about delivering authentic wellness through alternative therapies. They are the heart and soul of any spa and we celebrate their valuable contributions to this business. We are also delighted to announce Intraceuticals as our main sponsor for the 2019 awards,” says Stephanie Shiu, editor-in-chief of AsiaSpa magazine. The winners of the 2018 Awards are as follows: Spa of the Year (Southeast Asia & the Pacific) Maia Spa, Fusion Maia, Da Nang City, Vietnam Spa of the Year (North & West Asia) Chuan Spa, Cordis Hong Kong Urban Spa of the Year Bliss Spa, W Hong Kong Day Spa of the Year Lapidem Tokyo Spa, Tokyo, Japan New Spa of the Year PAÑPURI WELLNESS, Bangkok, Thailand Men’s Spa of the Year The Ritz-Carlton Spa, The Ritz-Carlton, Millenia, Singapore Eco-Spa of the Year Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat, Gold Coast, Australiaa Medi-Spa of the Year Dii Wellness Medi Spa, Bangkok, Thailand Destination Retreat Programme of the Year 7-day Ayurvedic Journeys, Anantara Spa, Anantara Tangalle Resort, Tangalle, Sri Lanka Spa Treatment of the Year Bamboo Fusion Massage, Willow Stream SPA, Fairmont Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China Couple's Treatment of the Year Vitality of the Hearts, Holistic Sanctuary and Healing Sanctuary Spa, The Farm at San Benito, Lipa City, Philippines Men's Spa Treatment of the Year Pedi:MENi:Cure by Bastien Gonzalez, The Oriental Spa, The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong Medi-Spa Treatment of the Year High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) Aesthetic Facial, Sense of Touch, Hong Konga Innovative Spa Treatment of the Year MARGY’S Monte Carlo Prestige Facial with Platinum Mask, Morpheus Spa, Morpheus Hotel, Macau, China Professional Spa Product Line of the Year BioPhyto, Christina Results-Oriented Product Line of the Year Hydrating Collection, Aromatherapy Associates Anti-Ageing Product Line of the Year Exception Marine, Thalgo New Product Range of the Year Ampoule Concentrates Grand Cru, BABOR Natural Product Line of the Year MDNA Skin, MDNA Skin Men’s Product Line of the Year Muscle Ease Blend, Subtle Energies Spa Cuisine of the Year Kamalaya Cuisine, Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary and Holistic Spa, Koh Samui, Thailand Destination Hotel/Resort of the Year Gaya Island Resort, Sabah, Malaysia Urban Hotel of the Year The Sukhothai Shanghai, China Family-Friendly Hotel/Resort of the Year Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Sha Tin, Hong Kong Eco-Hotel/Resort of the Year Fivelements, Bali, Indonesia Romantic Hotel/Resort of the Year AYANA Resort and Spa, Bali, Indonesia

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  • Global News

  2018-11-19

• Hyatt to Sponsor 2019 Global Wellness Summit in Hong Kong

  ▲ Hyatt Announced as Host Sponsor of 13th Annual Global Wellness Summit Taking Place in Hong Kong, October 15–17, 2019 The Global Wellness Summit (GWS), the foremost gathering of international leaders in the $4.2 trillion global wellness economy, has formally announced that global hospitality company Hyatt is the host sponsor of its 13th annual conference. The event will take place at Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, a pioneering hotel in celebrating wellness and promoting quality of life while traveling, on October 15–17, 2019. Early registration for the invitation-only 2019 Summit is now officially open. “In recent years, Hyatt has positioned itself as a true leader in holistic wellness for both its innovative and ever-evolving offerings that make guest’s wellbeing a priority as well as its commitment to workplace policies that are improving the lives of the people who serve them,” said Susie Ellis, chairman and CEO of GWS. “We’re thrilled to partner with Hyatt as our host sponsor for 2019 and excited to bring delegates to Hong Kong, a must-visit city and vibrant international business hub of Asia’s thriving economy.” Hyatt’s commitment to wellness includes a newly created position of senior vice president, global head of wellbeing, and the appointment of wellness expert and pioneer Mia Kyricos to the role. The company also made some strategic wellness-based acquisitions in recent years, including the purchase of Miraval Group, a progressive, mindfulness-based destination resort and spa company, and Exhale, a boutique fitness and spa brand that recently announced an on-demand app for 24/7 access to classes while on the road or at home. “Hyatt is honored to be a part of the 2019 Global Wellness Summit, where leaders from around the world join together to shape the future of the business of wellness,” said Mark Hoplamazian, president and CEO, Hyatt Hotels Corporation. “Wellbeing is the ultimate realization of Hyatt’s purpose—to care for people so they can be their best—and is a growing part of our company’s DNA as it relates to our colleagues, guests and customers. There’s no better place to bring together wellness industry leaders and visionaries from across the globe than the renowned Grand Hyatt Hong Kong where our team looks forward to advancing the discussion around wellness and wellbeing in our world today.” Ellis also remarked that having the Summit in Hong Kong creates a unique opportunity for delegates to gain firsthand insights into the many opportunities available in Asia’s exploding wellness markets, including China, Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and more. According to the Global Wellness Institute’s recently released 2018 Global Wellness Economy Monitor, Asia is the growth leader in key wellness markets. For instance, Asia’s wellness tourism market is the fastest growing in the world, with China and India ranking #1 and #2 for growth worldwide. Asia is also home to the largest number of spas and thermal/mineral springs in the world and has a fast-growing wellness real estate market. The Global Wellness Summit is always a sold-out event. First-time delegates must apply to attend, while previous delegates and invitees who register prior to February 28, 2019, can take advantage of a discounted registration rate. About the Global Wellness Summit: The Global Wellness Summit is an invitation-only international gathering that brings together leaders and visionaries to positively shape the future of the $4.2 trillion global wellness economy. Held in a different location each year, Summits have taken place in the US, Switzerland, Turkey, Bali, India, Morocco, Mexico, Austria and Italy. The 13th annual Summit will be held at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong from October 15–17, 2019.

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  • Global News

  2018-11-16