Travel Megatrends 2019: Wellness Is the New Hook in Travel Marketing
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It used to be food that created the buzz that lured travelers to all sorts of destinations. Now, wellness is taking over as travelers seek out healthier, more active vacations. Food is still a draw, of course, but it better satisfy a wellness craving.
There’s no denying that wellness is having a moment — from the organic and farm-to-table food movements to the rise of clean and natural beauty products to, you guessed it, travel. The Global Wellness Institute estimates that wellness tourism grew into a $639 billion market in 2017, and that number only stands to rise.
“I don’t think wellness is a fad, but rather it’s a change in society, and what society now expects,” said Andrew Gibson, co-founder of the Wellness Tourism Association. “We’ve seen wellness become a full-blown industry.”
To take advantage of this momentum, smart destinations have begun prioritizing wellness in their messaging, luring tourists who want to escape otherwise stressful lives or further their quest toward inner peace. And so far, it’s working: World travelers made 830 million wellness trips in 2017, 139 million more than in 2015, according to the Global Wellness Institute. If the upward trend continues — as experts predict — in 2019, the numbers could reach 1 billion.
Clearly, destinations already considered wellness-oriented, like Hawaii or St. Lucia, would be wise to heavily market to this new type of traveler — which shouldn’t be too hard a task. Other locales, more known for their “vice” offerings (Las Vegas, for starters), will likely need to play up their existing spa services or the notion that there’s “something for everyone” to get in on this huge slice of the tourism pie. As for places with little to no wellness ties? They’ll either have to do some marketing soul-searching or skip the trend entirely, which could mean a major missed opportunity for revenue.
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