We all know that spa and wellness is mostly seen as a luxury and often taken as a treat. However, I believe that wellness is for everyone, not only for the “happy few”. Spa and wellness has often been described as a "middle class" thing for good reasons. It focuses more on pampering and this is where the idea comes that it’s a treat, or something special.
Accessible wellness on the other hand is promoting healthy lifestyles for mind, body and soul. This is something that everyone can use on an everyday basis and we should all aspire to.
I believe that real wellness is a no-nonsense approach to treatments from massage to face treatments. But in the larger perspective it is also from physical wellness to mental wellness, from sexual wellness to social wellness, with ethical values for ourselves and our environment, We need to view things around us as a whole. Down the line it means paired down, minimalistic architecture and design, transformative courses or workshops that we can integrate into our daily lives, continuous education for therapists and clients alike. It is wellness that promotes healthy lifestyles, not just for a weekend or a week, but something we can all benefit from on a daily basis.
I do feel like we are at the cusp of change. The future is definitely going to see ostentatious opulence being replaced with wellness concepts for a larger public. I believe we are going back to basics which is a good thing, much needed as well, as preventative health management will be key in the future.
Resorts and spas around the world can tap into the accessible wellness trend by being creative in their marketing approach, offering shorter treatments, no nonsense treatments. It means you need to establish trust with the client and offer something genuine, having a high standard of service. This also implies securing effective training and knowledge on a regular basis.
Obviously you cannot be everything at the same time. This is the problem with “wellness” at the moment as it means everything and nothing, in the end catering for no-one.
All concept needs a mission and a purpose, which you can then implement with an engaged team who can transmit authentic values.
I see the younger X,Y,Z generation leading the way as digital health will give us a better understanding of what works for each one of us through “collaborative health”, which will compound all empirical resources with AI.
Therefore, the spa as we know it will disappear. It might however transform itself and mimic the Ancient Greek Asclepeion which was a centre for healing. As I see it this place would have hot and cold resources, mindfulness practices be it Yin Yoga or Acro Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, and also breath work (which is becoming very important).
Then there is energy work (not pumping iron as such), which rather short (7 min) workouts as we can see through recent studies the effectiveness of it, or even mindful energy outbursts like rage rooms or anger rooms. And finally obviously massage, which is the base for all healing work according to me, but also Hippocrates, the father of medicine, as it connects us with ourselves and gives us a sense of belonging.
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