The global wellness industry grew 10.6% to become a US $3.72 trillion market in 2015, with the spa market a key driver according to new research from the Global Wellness Institute (GWI).
The sector will be showcased once again at this year’s Arabian Travel Market (ATM) as the dedicated Wellness & Spa Lounge returns for 2017. Over 35 exhibitors representing some of the world’s most recognised health and wellness hospitality destinations will attend, an increase of 40% on last year’s numbers.
Has the Middle East and, specifically, Dubai, matured when it comes to wellness tourism? is there a way for hotel spas to capitalise on wellness and medical tourists?
Desmond Cawley: I certainly don’t think it’s fully mature. There are a lot of opportunities to capitalise on and exploit. Everyone realises that it’s a growing market. It’s particularly interesting what is noted about how hotels can capitalise on it. Global hotel chains need to position themselves as wellness hotels now. That’s certainly something that we’re doing within the Jumeirah Group as more of a holistic approach.
Lindsay Madden-Nadeau: It’s really important to identify what wellness means to Dubai and what it means to individuals. People are using ‘wellness’ all the time and it’s overused. I almost feel like, within our spas we want to move away from it, because it’s just such a cliché and hotels are saying, ‘Well, you know, I want wellness in my hotel,’ and I’ll go, ‘Okay, great. What does ‘wellness’ mean to your hotel?’ First of all we need to understand what ‘wellness’ means to Dubai and then each of the hotels.
Arnold D’Souza: As you said, we need to identify what ‘wellness’ means. From the tourism point of view, people don’t know what wellness is. We see people coming in and saying, ‘Okay, I need to relax.’ What we do is offer them resorts which have wellness spas. I have a lot of people asking for these, because they just want to get away from the day-to-day hustle and bustle. We have cosmetics surgeons, but I don’t think that is wellness.
Jeson Mathai: Dubai is known more as a shopping destination and I think we need to make tourists more aware of the products that we have. If you see the world population, 60% is ageing. So if we package the options that we have, instead of going all the way to Thailand, they can come here.
Lola vogiatiz: Dubai has done a good job with Healthcare City. We have, especially during the summer, people coming for long stays, which interests hotels. Instead of going to France or Germany, when they want to do something medical, they will come here. When it comes to wellness, it’s a completely different story. It’s a great opportunity for Dubai and every country that wants to capitalise on the trend of ‘detox’. Dubai can find a way to do it, because we might not have many trees or mountains, but we have the desert, which is another way you can create a trend.
Amanda Schmiege: The Westin brand has done a good job as a hotel in bringing that wellness component into all of their pillars. So we have a unique opportunity here, opening our Heavenly Spa, because they designed our spa and our gym dedicating two entire floors to the space, to really be a focal point of this property here. We have quite a few detox packages.
Paul Hawco: I obviously agree with everything that’s been said. We’re still in our infancy as far as a destination for spa and wellness, and for it being recognised for that. We have the facilities, world-class services and treatments, expert level of providers and operators, [all of which] are increasing. I’ve been to Bali and Thailand all those places as well and I think it’s good to reference them as a benchmark, but not to try and recreate that. Like Lindsay said as well, and I said before, you can’t re-create those destinations. We almost need to create our own destination.
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