With their finger always on the pulse, Wellbeing Escapes, the leading spa travel company, has identified the top health and wellness trends for 2011. The team at Wellbeing Escapes is committed to providing the most up-to-date research in order to have an unparalleled depth of understanding of the wellness approach and the products it offers, ensuring their customers are always kept fully informed. Looking at the booking patterns of their loyal client base and combining extensive guest feedback with intelligence from their inner circle of industry contacts and insights from suppliers, they have compiled the following predictions for 2011:
Less pampering, more health
In 2011 we will see an ever bigger shift to providing wellness options rather than pampering. More spas and resorts are learning how to integrate treatments with wellness specialisms such as nutritionists and targeted activities to create an overall health enhancing experience. Beware of the inevitable marketers adopting the wellness buzzword but not being able to deliver the experience.
Shorter spa menus
The days of endless lists of treatments at top quality spas are numbered as more spas will be editing down their treatment lists to deliver a better service. A specialist approach allows for a deeper, more thorough training, recognising that a ‘jack of all trades’ therapist is unlikely to provide the highest quality experience.
Solo travellers dominate
Busy schedules and the desire not to have to satisfy other people’s needs on holiday are the main reasons there is an increasing percentage of people travelling solo on a spa or wellness holiday. There is no longer a stigma attached to focusing on oneself, in fact this segment is growing faster than any other. Savvy spas and wellness resorts are addressing this sizeable market by providing no single supplements, busy activity schedules, and sociable facilities such as sharing tables at meal times.
The power of pilates
An increasing number of spas are reviewing how to further improve their fitness facilities beyond personal trainers and yoga classes and fully equipped Pilates facilities are a very interesting option. Pilates provides a great solution for a number of personal challenges – back problems, post surgery rehabilitation, post pregnancy firming and strengthening and postural correction to name a few.
Healthy ageing
Many of the world’s established destination spas and some new cutting edge wellness resorts are developing comprehensive programmes to help us age healthily. The focus is not about reducing wrinkles but about disease prevention and health enhancement. Personal medical evaluations, usually taken through blood tests, are followed by tailored health plans that include treatments, education and activities that will help achieve optimum health and boost vitality.
Health and fitness for the mind
The global recession has resulted in additional pressures and stress due to concerns about job losses in this cost cutting environment. Physical fitness is now firmly established and accepted as a way to reduce stress and increase energy and now mental fitness is being recognised as equally important. Meditation is no longer viewed as a spiritual pastime for monks or lentil-eating, sandal- wearing hippies but is being used as a daily tool to help with stress and efficiency. Leading spas and wellness resorts are including meditation as part of activity schedules to help people learn this valuable tool. Again, it is all about quality, it takes years of instruction to be able to teach this technique effectively so it is important to learn from an authentic and experienced teacher.
Value and return on investment
Although the deals are still out there they are gradually decreasing as the economy slowly turns around and hotels and airlines start to focus on increasing yields again. As the spa going population becomes more sophisticated and experienced they will focus more on value rather than the cheapest price. The cheapest spa will not necessarily bring a return on investment in terms of measurable health benefits and long lasting results on their return.
Restorative breaks for men
Historically the spa world has generally marketed pampering to women and fitness to men. The focus for men was ‘alpha goal’ orientated programmes that brought a sense of achievement and enforced the stereotype. We have seen a shift in what high achieving men are looking for, away from adrenaline filled action packed breaks to more restorative breaks that help with stress reduction and rebalancing. We predict this segment will grow as men realise that the detox, retox cycle is not sustainable and balance is not a feminine concept.
Increase of new non surgical/non chemical beauty treatments
With celebrities publicly turning away from chemical procedures such as botox, the emergence of fast and effective beauty treatments that are non toxic are becoming popular at spas. New procedures and machinery are being introduced at European spas that show impressive results in skin texture and smoothing wrinkles and lines. Look out for innovative approaches such as extracting plasma from your blood and injecting it into the skin by the process of painless micro needling or more traditional approaches such as the vigorous tui-na Chinese facial massages.
Wellness through nature
This can take the form of fitness, holistic activities, meditation, and treatments. Rather than putting people indoors to carry out their wellness programme, many hotels spas and wellness resorts will be further focusing on getting guests to engage with the natural resources and uniqueness of their locations. Currently there is hiking in mountains; yoga in the gardens; and fitness programmes that encompass kayaking, sea-swimming, jungle gyms, outdoor rock climbing walls and mountain biking. We predict this will become more creative with meditation walks along beautiful beaches, yoga in outdoor salas, tree-top spas and treatment locations where you can hear the sound of the ocean and birdsong – no more air-conditioned window-less treatment rooms playing CDs with nature music on repeat cycle.
