This article is part of our Vogue Business Membership package. To enjoy unlimited access to Member-only reporting and insights, our NFT Tracker, Beauty Trend Tracker and TikTok Trend Tracker, weekly Technology, Beauty and Sustainability Edits and exclusive event invitations, sign up for Membership here.
Wellness tourism is booming. After years of pandemic lockdowns, more people are travelling with the express aim of improving their wellbeing — and businesses are responding by bringing wellness destinations and treatments to urban spaces. It is becoming an aggressive and competitive market offering ever wilder and weirder healthcare hacks for those seeking a quick fix.
“What we’ve seen in the last three years has provided us with a heightened level of self-responsibility over what we can do regarding our own health and wellbeing — mental health and anxiety being a key area that people are tuning into,” says Mark Sands, vice president of wellness at the Six Senses chain of luxury resorts and wellness spas.
The global wellness economy shrank from a record $4.9 trillion in 2019 to $4.4 trillion in 2020 amid pandemic lockdowns, but is forecast to reach $7 trillion by 2025, according to research by non-profit the Global Wellness Institute (GWI). Growth in wellness tourism is expected to outpace the rest of the sector, swelling by 20.9 per cent annually to reach $1.1 trillion in 2025.
The rapid growth is attracting new entrants — including luxury brands, such as Dior and La Mer, which have been exploring wellness activations this summer as a way of rewarding their loyal customers. Wellness solutions are also popping up in cities. In London, Alex Eagle Sporting Club provides body therapy technologies including cryotherapy, infrared light and ozone saunas (using a combination of heat and CO2), red light therapy and compression and percussion tools, alongside acupuncture, mindfulness, fitness and beauty. Across the capital, wellness is becoming part of the daily routine: pop-ups by Get a Drip offer blood testing, IV drips, vitamin boosters, DNA testing and compression therapy. In East London, Self Space allows people to walk in and speak to a mental health professional on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Luxury department stores with high tourist footfall are recognising the appeal wellness to their customers. American wellness centre Reviv — which provides IV drips for everything from glutathione, a powerful antioxidant, to a molecular compound called NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), which is said to suppress physiological decline — opened a new clinic in London department store Harrods at the end of 2022. Harrods rival Selfridges offers services from By Dr Vali that include a cryo chamber, prescription-grade IVs, neurofeedback and biohacking. In Paris, Galeries Lafayette launched the Wellness Galerie last year — a 3,000-square-metre space that offers services including cryotherapy.
For By Dr Vali founder Dr Shawana Vali, it comes down to a cultural shift. “People are openly saying ‘I’m going to get an IV, I’m not feeling too well’, rather than, ‘I’m going to go see the GP’. It’s a change in demand, and the urban landscape is only just reflecting that.”
As more and more companies offer transformations in urban venues there will be less need to travel to more remote spas, says Joe Pine, co-author of The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention and Money. “The explosion in new and wondrous kinds of experiences over the past few decades has meant those businesses that have traditionally been in the experience business (including department stores and resorts and spas) have to up their game,” he says. The experience economy used to have three main currencies — time, attention and money — but now companies must also compete for a “share of aspiration”, Pine adds.
The benefits of destination spas
Resorts can compete by capitalising on their locations — taking people away from the hustle and bustle of cities, and offering a more immersive experience.
At the Ananda retreat in Rishikesh, in the foothills of the Himalayas, in addition to emotional wellness therapy (which merges conventional psychiatry with traditional medicines and therapies, including advanced hypnotherapy), the retreat launched a Sleep Enhancement Programme earlier this year. Lifestyle modifications, dietary corrections, Ayurveda therapies and traditional Chinese medicine are used to address the quality of sleep. Geetika Sharma, director of wellness strategy at Ananda reports an uptick in those searching for overall emotional wellbeing and better sleep health, especially since the pandemic.
Spas are also experimenting with cutting-edge treatments. Transformative travel company Healing Holidays offers experiences that cost anywhere between £2,500 for a healing escape to £5,000 for a medical spa. Founder and owner Frances Geoghegan notes that genetic and DNA testing is becoming the new norm at health spas around the world. The SHA Wellness Clinic in Spain last month launched a specialised sexual health unit to address sexual function and wellness via hormone treatment.
Six Senses, meanwhile, offers localised services such as certified Shamanic healers at its recently opened Rosebar resort in Ibiza or Pranic healers at its resort in India, alongside advanced treatments such as cryotherapy, ayurveda, hyperbaric oxygen chambers and biohacking.
Destination spas offer full immersion in an environment that is conducive to mental, physical and often spiritual health, says Sarah Willersdorf, global lead of luxury at consultancy Boston Consulting Group. Consumers typically treat these destination experiences as an annual reset or restart, and they are often located where consumers are willing to test trials of treatments or services that they have yet to try. The upcoming Soneva Soul Festival in September takes this a step further; consumers can sign up to a week of highlight talks from wellness, spiritual and medical leaders on topics of nutrition, spiritual health, as well as one-on-one consultations for holistic wellbeing. “Even with the growth of urban wellness centres, destination spas and resorts will continue to have an important role,” Willersdorf adds.
Demand for wellness tourism will continue to soar, experts predict, as people seek an antidote to the strains of modern life. “We’ve never seen a condition called adrenal fatigue [a term used by some alternative health practitioners to explain symptoms believed to be brought on by prolonged exposure to stress] as much as we’re seeing right now,” says Dr Vali. “Everyone is wired and tired because we are all performing multi-hyphenate roles.”
Six Senses founder and CEO of hotel chain Soneva Sonu Shivdasani agrees that many people now have a greater need to seek a sense of harmony: “Socially, there was a shift towards more mindful and holistic living at the end of 1990s/early 2000s. Wellness and wellbeing started to take centre stage as people sought ways to balance their busy lives,” says Shivdasani (who established the company in 1995 and sold it to private equity firm Pegasus Capital in 2012).
The risks of competitive wellness
As destination spas and urban wellness centres compete to attract visitors, the tools and technologies used are becoming ever more extreme. Holistic treatments such as Shamanic and Pranic healing are also largely unregulated, due to the complexity of accreditations and lack of organised boards to oversee such services.
Consumers are dependent on resort providers to choose reliable technicians and doctors for wellness activations. Sands of Six Senses warns wellness tourists to ask questions before they go, such as: is there a certificate or vetting process? And how many years of experience does the practitioner have?
Altering hormonal pathways is one of the more popular wellness treatments finding a growing consumer base, notes Dr Vali. However, its alternative uses in aiding weight loss — in some cases by injecting the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) inhibitor used to treat diabetes — has become a popular fad among celebrities. “It’s a really dangerous area that without medical backing can lead to problems,” warns Dr Vali.
“Those who guide transformations have a moral duty — something akin to the fiduciary responsibility of financial advisors and the ‘do no harm’ motto of doctors — to ensure that what they do does not harm the individuals under their care, but is a positive good for them,” says wellness expert Pine. “But, with every economic offering there are people and companies who will sell offerings that in fact do not help in any way and often do harm. The great majority of people and companies, however, do intend on doing good and helping consumers who come to them seeking ways of achieving their aspirations.”
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
Hot wellness summer: Beauty takes experiences to new heights
Beauty’s new launch pad: Luxury hotels
Beauty’s next investment boom: Facials, waxing and injectables
