Wellness Travel in 2022
State of wellness in 2022
We are now nearly two full years into Covid19 and the effects of which have, understandably, completely altered our world.
The impact of social isolation on mental health, compounded by health issues, economic and job instability, and all of the other cascading effects of Covid19, should come as no surprise to anyone. One article entitled ‘The Implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use’ revealed that 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. reported symptoms of anxiety and/or depression in 2020-2021 - a nearly 30% increase from the year previous. These past two years have provided ample evidence of the basic needs for our mental health.
According to a Frontiers in Psychology article, the forced isolation due to Covid19 has also “heightened people's attention to the positive effects of exercise on physical health” and mental health. People are aware, now more than ever, of the connection between mind and body. Being prohibited from engaging in group fitness activities and gyms has consequently reinforced the necessity of those spaces, even for people who might otherwise have been infrequent gym-goers.
Over the past two years, the travel industry has been forced to adapt to ever-changing travel regulations, border closures, visa and entry requirements, shifts in traveler needs, and so much more. The flexibility of the industry and individual agents has been proven time and time again. As we’re seeing travel re-emerge in a serious way (travel in October 2021 was only 12% below October 2019 levels), however, the combination of some other tangential changes over the past two years as well as the heightened attention to physical and mental wellbeing may require that hoteliers and travel agents reconsider how to incorporate all aspects of wellness into their clients’ travel plans.
The narrative around physical wellness and what it means to be healthy is changing. The cultural tone of exercise as a chore or punishment is now being reconsidered for one of a wellness based lifestyle that incorporates exercise as one of its tenets, and we’ll soon see wellness travel reflect that shift.
Cultural shifts in wellness
One of the defining shifts in the wellness space that has been slowly coming to fruition over the past few years is the movement away from fitness-as-punishment and towards wellness-as-reward. The phrase “self-care”, once a term tucked away in internet spaces like Tumblr and Twitter, has now become an industry in its own right, from skin care lines to aromatherapy companies to bestselling books.
This shift has emerged out of a dual effort in wellness research and the popularization of the body positivity and body neutrality movements. In years past, it wouldn’t have been unusual to see magazines touting wonder diets and need-to-know weight loss regimens, but these claims now strike modern audiences as merely fatphobic rhetoric and, often, based on faulty or outdated science.
The fitness and wellness industries have had to shift accordingly. More and more fitness studios, emerging and established, are taking steps towards embracing body neutrality - a term which simply refers to the idea that an individual can exist, move, and exercise without thinking about their body in either a negative or positive way.
On top of that, the very idea of what it means to be healthy and well is facing huge shifts. Alongside this return towards body neutrality in fitness spaces, there have been a variety of other shifts in what it means to be well: workspaces are becoming more conscious of encouraging a healthier work-life balance, consumers are looking to companies to improve their sustainability practices (some 61% of surveyed consumers said they plan to pay more attention to the environmental impact of what they consume), and people are more interested than ever in immune health (check out the 2022 Mindbody Wellness Index, where strengthening immune health was listed as the leading response from surveyed Americans).
Given that 68% of travellers in a recent American Express survey reported that they will “likely plan their next vacation around improving mental well-being”, some hotel fitness programs are taking steps in advance to welcome this new influx of wellness travellers and provide them with spaces that address their new needs.
The tides of wellness travel
Wellness travel is in no way a new concept; it’s been around for decades and is defined by the Wellness Tourism Association (WTA) as, “travel that allows the traveler to maintain, enhance or kick-start a healthy lifestyle, and support or increase one’s sense of wellbeing.” This sense of wellness branches out into all aspects of an individual’s travel experience, including access to fitness centers, a sense of cleanliness, and a heightened awareness of sustainability practices.
More than in years previous, travelers are becoming increasingly selective about their surroundings and curated activities during travel. Access to just a gym no longer cuts it - 2022 travelers are looking for, among other things, fitness activities in nature, hotel environments with sustainable and green practices, purified water and air systems, and general proximity to nature.
Some of these new requirements involve larger infrastructure changes for hotels and other travel companies, but alongside these infrastructure changes, hoteliers have a chance to get creative with wellness as a whole. Some hotels are now beginning to view wellness as a holistic endeavour, moving away from purely gym-based activities and towards more creative wellness programs such as sound therapy, local foraging expeditions, rejuvenating spas, and more.
Curious about how Umapped can help you meet all of your clients’ needs?
The wellness traveler of today’s world is considering every aspect of their travel plans to ensure that their physical and mental needs are being met.
Using digital itinerary solutions, like Umapped, travel agents can not only provide their travelers with a safe and secure way to access their itinerary, from the comfort of their phone, but also communicate these new hotel amenities and relevant activity options in the neighborhood to enrich their traveler’s experience and address their wellness needs. We also don’t mind showing you exactly how to do this.
See why more and more advisors are turning to digital solutions like Umapped by signing up for a free trial and joining one of our introductory webinars.
