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2024 TRENDS: The Future of Wellness

By Sara Jones, for Spa & Wellness MexiCaribe

Nancy Davis welcomed the gathering of industry leaders, trend writers and media to the event, announcing that a new report will be released, the Global Wellness Economy Country Rankings.

Susie Ellis spoke about the momentum for wellness she sees at the moment, with the wellness market growing to 8.5 trillion by 2027 globally.

Ophelia Yeung clarified the GWS’s definition of wellness and the scope of their research. The top 5 countries account for 59% of the wellness economy.

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2023 TRENDS: The Future of Wellness


Wellness + Gathering: Wellness Comes for the Loneliness Epidemic

Beth McGroarty

Our social relationships are critical to our wellness and happiness, products for ‘me-time’ and digital wellness are giving way to engagement opportunities. “We are moving from solo to social…”, membership models where programming for group bonding is the focus. Lonely, remote work is not helping, people need places to be and the younger generation is ditching bars and booze. The psychedelics market is about to explode, friendship apps are replacing dating apps, creating curated dinner parties and group walks, etc. Social interaction is also impacting medicine, allowing patients with the same conditions to compare symptoms and outcomes. Social connection is the biggest missing pillar of health.

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The Global Wellness Summit annual trends report: The Future of Wellness 2022

1) Dirt-y Wellness

Soil is our planet’s most extraordinary ecosystem, a living microbial stew that for millions of years cycled nutrients to plants and captured atmospheric carbon. For 99% of human evolution, people lived with soil, as foragers and farmers. Our current lack of soil exposure and contact with its bacterial and fungal richness impacts everything from immune to mental health.

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Global Wellness Summit: The Future of Wellness 2021

The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) today released its top nine wellness trends for 2021, the new directions that the organization believes will have the most meaningful impact on the multitrillion global wellness industry. The trends were presented at a virtual press event attended by thousands worldwide.

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2020 Global Wellness Trends

From Sleep to True Circadian Health

Any solution claiming to reset circadian rhythms must have the timing of light at its center. We’ve never been so obsessed: We buy the latest gadgets to track our sleep quality; use the smartest mattress; ingest sleep tonics, CBD (and yes, Ambien and Xanax); we pay for nap pods and travel far for sleep retreats. The ‘sleep economy’ is set to reach $585 billion by 2024.

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2019 Global Spa & Wellness Trends

By Sara Jones, for Spa & Wellness MexiCaribe

Each year, the Global Wellness Summit (GWS) identifies new trends that will have a meaningful impact on the $4.2 trillion wellness industry

Well Fashion – Way Beyond Athleisure
A new era of sustainable, ethical, intelligent, healing, more inclusive and meaningful clothing is on the rise.

The greedy, throwaway fashion machine has a disastrous impact on the environment and humans: the waste, the pollution and the garment workers (mostly women). Less than 1% of clothing material is ever recycled. This model creates a staggering 1.2 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually and dumps 20% of all global wastewater.

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International Spa Conference 2018 (ISPA)

By Sara Jones, for Spa & Wellness MexiCaribe

The General session opened with an enchanting performance from spoken word artist Pacia Elaine, before ISPA chairman, Garrett Mersberger took the stage to welcome the 2000+ attendees and present the ISPA 2018 Visionary Award posthumously to Lori Hutchinson of Hutchinson Consulting who connected people and touched lives across the spa industry for decades before passing in 2016.

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A Decade of Wellness

By Sara Jones, for Spa & Wellness MexiCaribe

An interview with Susie Ellis, Franz Linser and Sue Harmsworth of the Global Wellness Summit, to be held in October 2016, Kitzbuhel, Austria.

What are the key accomplishments in wellness of the last decade?

Susie Ellis:  The fact that the term “wellness” has been embraced globally is a huge accomplishment and one that happened over the last decade. Ten years ago many different terms were being used and vying for attention, but each fell short of inspiring a movement.  Some examples include “spa,” “prevention,” “health,” “healthy travel,” “eco building,” “integrative medicine,” etc. Now that all of these separate sectors have found a place under the term wellness (“wellness centers,” “wellness retreats,” “wellness tourism,” “workplace wellness,” “wellness architecture,” “medical wellness,” “wellness communities,” “wellness technology,” etc.). The combined efforts have garnered significant attention and the entire industry is now valued at $3.4 trillion. That’s a huge accomplishment!

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Four Steps to Creating a Male-Inclusive Spa Culture

Written by Mike Bruggeman for Spa & Wellness MexiCaribe

Until recently men’s skin has been treated as a one-size-fits-all proposition, when in fact men have skin types and unique conditions too. So why have so few product lines and spas taken men seriously? The answer is simple. Prime retail shelf space is allocated to top sellers. Could there be a flaw in this equation when it comes to men?

According to the International Spa Association in 2014, the proportion of male spa-goers has shot up from 31% to 47% in less than 10 years. In 2014, total U.S. sales of men’s personal care hit $4.1 billion, up 6.7% from 2012, and 19% from 2009. Men’s skin care is one of the fastest-growing segments in beauty. Mintel predicts sales will grow to $4.6 billion by 2019.

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