Hello readers,
Holiday travel, as we know, is in the midst of a paradigm shift, with the new fad among travelers, especially the well-heeled and the upwardly mobile, is wellness travel — travel plans with the purpose of achieving more physical and mental fitness and well-being, with the usual ‘touristy’ activities acting more as just ‘add ons’. The increased urbanization and changes in diet and activity levels, leading to fast rising of chronic diseases, an upsurge in the painful and often fatal ailments such as cancer, Alzheimer, etc, are triggering the move towards wellness-related travels. Rising personal disposable incomes and increased awareness about health and wellness facilities and products around the world are acting as additional drivers of this new trend.
The rapid shift toward proactive healthcare, with greater emphasis on preventing diseases, is helping the niche interest to fast evolve as a mainstream lifestyle priority, especially for professionals and high-end travelers across age groups. This, in turn, is seeing mushrooming of a new set of service providers, offering tailor-made programs and products, focussed on personalised experiences, integrating technology to develop specialised retreats that promote holistic health.
The burgeoning prioritization of wellness and medical tourism-related travel is also translating this segment into a multi-trillion industry, with studies projecting the global health and wellness market to surpass $11 trillion by 2034. The market has both primary wellness travellers — those whose main motivation for travel is wellness, and secondary wellness travellers — who participate in wellness-related activities while on a business or leisure trip. To cater to the rising requirements, service providers are moving beyond one-size-fits-all programs to create personalized wellness itineraries.
Acknowledging the growing concern for mental wellness, service providers are also creating dedicated programs for stress management, meditation and mindfulness. Hotels in several sought after destinations for wellness travel are also upgrading facilities with high-tech wellness equipment. Hotels are also partnering with wellness brands, fitness experts, and local practitioners to expand their offerings. This ranges from budget-friendly in-room wellness kits to high-tech longevity diagnostics.
As the market becomes more mainstream, travelers are also facing increased challenges of finding right destinations/markets for their specific requirements.
Destination Wellness, our weekly publication, intends to unravel this fascinating new market for discerning travelers and readers with articles and features on leading international experts’ take on the future road map for the industry, emerging new trends in the segment, new and fast rising destinations for wellness and medical tourism-related travel, latest market developments in each region and a whole lot of related information.
We hope to see an overwhelming response from travelers, service providers, market players and readers to our endeavor.
James Mathew
Editor
