Purpose-built wellness infra in focus

SanJeet, Director, DDP Group, moderated an insightful session on ‘Wellness and celebratory tourism’ with three industry experts at the Arabian Travel Market. Paul Stevens, COO, MEA and Turkiye, Accor Hotels and Resorts Management; Eddy Tannous, COO, Rotana Hotels and Kathryn Moore, MD, Spa Connectors, shared their viewpoint on the wellness industry.

Dr Shehara Fernando

Opening the session on ‘Wellness and celebratory tourism’ at the Arabian Travel Market, SanJeet, CEO, DDP Group, said that today, wellness tourism in its broad perspective includes activities like yoga, meditation trips, fitness, detox holidays, stress management retreats and even healing experiences in nature like the desert and the mountains.

“Wellness tourism’s goal is not to treat sickness but to prevent it. To feel fresh, calm and healthy. Celebratory tourism, on the other hand, is different. It means travelling to celebrate big moments of life, your weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, engagement parties and everything. People want to make these special moments in beautiful places. They often combine sightseeing, culture and holidays for this. Now, how big is this market? In 2024, the Middle East and Africa wellness tourism market is worth US$16.3 billion,” he said.

Paul Stevens, COO, MEA and Turkiye, Accor Hotels and Resorts Management, shared, “One of the new trends that we have seen, and whether it’s a trend that has been going on for a while and we just have not noticed, is things like this where the celebrity part of my answer comes in, like a Coldplay concert that we had in Abu Dhabi this year. You know, if you looked at any of those concerts, if you looked at the people in the audience, yes, some of them were certainly from this region, UAE, but many were travelling in groups, celebrating either the music, celebrating their friendship, or a special milestone in their lives. And it was really prevalent, particularly from other countries, Asian countries, South Asian countries, that we had enormous number of people coming in, and what I would call, celebratory tourism.”

Stevens added, “So, we are seeing cross-border movements now, we are seeing bigger groups come in, and I think that is something that obviously, with billions of dollars at play now, is something that really needs to be elevated. In a way, we look at that style of celebration and the tourism and travel that goes around with it. And now integrating the wellness part of that, I guess, hotels can have spas or wellness areas.”

Eddy Tannous, COO, Rotana Hotels, commented, “I was in a conversation with someone from one of the big credit card companies recently. She shared something very interesting, and it kind of connects our wellness discussion with the celebratory travel discussion. First of all, being in this part of the world, we are blessed. Business is strong right now in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. So, you cannot attribute that success to one market sector. But she said, one of the trends that are surging recently is families travelling together. So, you have the different generations between boomers, Generation X, and then what I call Generation Z onwards. And she was saying that Generation X right now is travelling and spending money on wellness retreats with family.”

Tannous added, “They want to bring their parents with them, but they also want to bring their kids with them. So, we are the generation that, if we are lucky enough, our parents took us to these places at some point. So, there is kind of a going back to roots with the family but also wanting your kids to experience what you have experienced with your parents. And that is creating that link with people.”

Kathryn Moore, Managing Director, Spa Connectors, also contributed with her expertise. “There are so many things that fit underneath it, whether it’s spa, whether it’s meditation, all the way to medical, well-being, retreats, etc. Fitness, going and joining a boot camp or something in a hotel. This all fits under the umbrella of well-being or wellness,” said Moore, adding, “So, what we are seeing now is a rise in wellness travellers. We have got primary wellness travellers who are travelling just for wellness. Their purpose is to achieve certain results. You have then got a secondary wellness traveller. These people are wanting to travel for various reasons. It could be for a wedding, corporate or leisure, whatever it is.”

Moore added, “But they have an expectation that there is a level of wellness that is offered at the hotel that they are going to. And that could be a healthy breakfast. It could have a room service menu that actually has healthy options, that mentions your macros. It might be a yoga mat in the room. It might also then be a running track that they are made aware of. It’s just incorporating well-being throughout their stay.”

She further added, “What we are seeing is that spend from a primary and a secondary wellness traveller far outweighs an average traveller. So, I think from an economic standpoint, it’s really important to think, how am I targeting a wellness traveller, whether it’s primary or secondary, in my hotel? And I think a lot of hotels are missing the mark in being able to offer something for these secondary wellness travellers, because the number of them are growing dramatically.”