A new study from the Global Wellness Institute reveals that wellness tourism grew from a US$563 billion market in 2015 to US$639 billion in 2017, or 6.5% annually – that implies huge opportunity for hoteliers who can successfully manage in this space that more often acts as a loss leader. Top hoteliers address this megatrend below (and find out how they are addressing other big disruptors in their field).
HOTELS: How well do hotels operate in the wellness space and how do you fuse it with a rooms business in an authentic way?
Jim Chu, global head of development and owner relations, Hyatt Hotels Corp.: We describe [wellness] as an adjacent space… Customers may go to Miraval [Hyatt’s recently acquired wellness brand] one time a year, or once every three years, but it doesn’t mean that they’re looking for a Miraval experience in every single Hyatt property. If they do that, then we would just dilute that experience of Miraval. I think that’s the caution.
But there is a very large population that spends an exorbitant amount of money on wellbeing, and on wellness. There’s a balance between having a Miraval experience and having an hotel experience and we want to be mindful of what it means at different levels, and different brands of our hotels. It doesn’t have to be under those trade names by any means.
Jay Stein, CEO, Dream Hotel Group: Travelers want wellness as part of their lifestyle all the time. It’s part of their lives to eat healthy, to live healthy, to have a place to work out. So we see those as basic elements. Now, when we go to Dream in Palm Springs, there’s going to be an insane spa element because it’s the prefect place for it, but we wouldn’t do that in every property.
Brad Wilson, president, Atelier Ace: It’s a localization product to me in a lot of ways. We have an amazing spa in our Palm Springs hotel and we do yoga classes in all of our hotels. What I find fascinating: we do yoga every morning, and we’re lucky if one or two people show up when the hotel’s sold out. And yet, the fascinating thing is so many people pre-book and everyone is fascinated by the fact that we have yoga classes.
Bill Walshe, CEO, Viceroy Hotel Group: The guest is embracing whatever wellness means to them in their life… They have zero tolerance for mediocrity, so my view is do a few things brilliantly… When we opened Los Cabos [Mexico] last year we went to a guy called Harley Pasternak, (Los Angeles-based personal trainer, motivational speaker, author and television host) to build us what our guests now describe as our very own Equinox [gym]. It’s cool. They think that we have put the effort in to give them an awesome gym experience. I’ve never had anybody say, ‘I’m not coming back because they don’t have yoga.’ In our case, they’re too busy posting [to social media] the inside of the gym saying, ‘I have never seen this before.’ So we decided that’s what we want to own in the Los Cabos markets.
Danny Hughes, president, Americas, Hilton: But whether you’re a guest or part of the team, people want to do business, and want to be part of a company that they feel share their values. It’s part of wellness. You say people feel good, and want to feel good, they want to feel good about where they’re spending their money. They want to know the purpose of the company and it’s something that’s only going to continue. I don’t think it’s possible to be blind to the changing world, and you’ve just got to make a difference.
Chu: So I do think there’s a piece of bringing wellbeing and wellness into the hotels. There is the basic piece of the observation too, which is when we went back and expanded our fitness facilities. We expanded the footprint even of our core Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brand because one thing that was clear: if I work out every day at 6 a.m. and on the second day I can’t get a treadmill, it doesn’t matter what else I’m doing. I’m upset.
Sharan Pasricha, founder, Ennismore: We don’t have gyms at our hotels because the only space we can allocate is a basement without windows, Our view is if it’s not an inspiring space, well there’s somebody out there that’s going to do it better. So we partner with the Equinox’s and the Gym Boxes, and the Soul Cycles of this world, and we encourage our guests to go and use them, and have an experience outside the hotel that is way better.
But rather than spending money in a gym, we spend money on the experiences, and we curate these experiences. Brad talked about meditation. Our view of wellness is its mindfulness, its physical wellbeing and mental well-being, and it runs across all spheres. So we spend a lot of time thinking about how we can curate a range of programs, not just for our hotel guests, but for people within the community and the local people that live and work in the area for wellness.