Wellness-related travel continues to grow in popularity. According to some research reports, it is now the fastest-growing segment of the travel industry, growing more than twice as fast as tourism overall. This is not surprising because people have become more proactive with the state of their own health, conscientiously making changes in their daily lives and adopting healthier practices and habits. They want the same when they travel. They realize that giving themselves time for self-care truly is the new luxury.
If you mention “wellness travel” to 10 people, six of them probably will be thinking “spa.” While the sector has, in the minds of many, been long associated with spas, it is starting to move away from that automatic response. Today, the wellness travel big picture is more about food, fitness, and nature.
To enhance your knowledge of this extremely popular specialty, enroll in The Travel Institute’s Wellness Travel Specialist Course. And, if you are interested in exploring additional specialist courses, join Patty Noonan, CTC for the free webinar Specialization—Finding Your Travel Industry Niche, on August 26 at 1:00 pm (EDT).
While it’s important to not make assumptions about what a wellness vacation is, it’s equally important to not make assumptions about why a potential client wants one.
So, what exactly is a wellness vacation?
The basics of wellness travel are those things commonly associated with a wellness lifestyle: healthy food, movement in the form of yoga, fitness, or other activities, some form of rest and relaxation, access to spaces conducive to peace and quiet, something to soothe the mind (time in nature, meditation, etc.), and a good night’s sleep.
When travel is planned with a specific wellness-focused intention, we call that time away a wellness vacation. It can be anywhere from a long weekend to two weeks or, in the case of weight loss or completely wanting to change a lifestyle for the better, sometimes longer.
But, depending on the intention, a wellness vacation can be many things. Here are just a few examples: It can be a yoga retreat in Sedona or at a beachfront resort in the Riviera Maya. It can be learning about how to make healthy food choices and cooking healthy meals at a Utah resort. It can be a weeklong, mother-daughter cycling tour of Puglia, Italy. Or it can be a week of daily guided hiking and paddling, healing holistic therapies, cooking classes, and even an in-the-moment outdoor art class in the Adirondacks.
It’s important to continue to educate consumers that wellness travel can be fun and that they also can have “wellness play”—activities that not only help them be and stay healthy but also create a sense of well-being. The concept of wellness travel has changed because, in the early years, it was all about the luxury spa experience, then all about the yoga experience. But people now are understanding that one can have a wellness travel experience without either of those.
What motivates your clients to seek a wellness vacation?
When it comes to the growing demand for wellness travel, there are eight drivers:
- The often noisy, congested, and stressful environment that has become our world.
- Heightened consumer awareness. Reports on scientific advances have highlighted the importance of changing day-to-day practices and habits that can help shape our overall health and wellbeing. This has led to more people learning how to be more proactive with their health and taking vacation time to do so.
- The adoption by more consumers of wellness lifestyles and the desire to travel the way they live.
- The increase in an aging population with the time and finances to travel and the goal of living healthier longer.
- The rise of organizations such as the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) and the Wellness Tourism Association (WTA) that have collected and shared information on the growing sector.
- The decision by hospitality and other industries to create more options in all price categories and to cater to an increasingly broad range of special interests.
- The sharing of information by the media—traditional, digital, and social—so that the term wellness travel has come into common use.
- The evolution of the concept of self-care to become less selfish and more accepted.
We currently are experiencing an exciting evolution in which consumers are beginning to see the true value of using vacation time—away from the daily hassles of everyday life—to be proactive in their own health care. And, because the wellness travel industry is growing exponentially, potential clients need help in navigating it. Education is the key, and that comes right back to YOU, the wellness travel specialist.
