Brave New Frontiers

The hotel spa is just the first stop in the wellness journey. The global wellness hospitality industry, worth almost $4.5 trillion, is evolving to dovetail the concept of healing with everyday living. India, the citadel of traditional wisdom, is following suit

- Deepali Nandwani

The COVID-19 crisis has ensured that we are well-versed with the need to focus on wellness. Not just a medical sort of wellness, but a holistic one, focusing on nutrition, rest, rejuvenation, and centred on everyday wellness.

Wellness, then, is a crucial segment that offers hoteliers immense opportunities to grow in the After-COVID world. The GWI (Global Wellness Institute) projects that wellness tourism will grow at an average annual rate of 7.5% through 2022, considerably faster than the 6.4% annual growth forecasted for overall global tourism.

Once the world opens, it is likely to be obsessively focussed on wellness and safety. In some sense, wellness will move from the realm of an additional hospitality service that helps hotels earn revenues, to the centre-stage.

In hotels, wellness products are an integral part of several service verticals such as F&B menus and guestroom amenities. “Historically, hotels have looked at a spa being a line item for their revenues. Most owners first build a hotel and then build a spa. But new-age hotels need to ensure that their design and brand philosophy is pivoted on making a wellness centre and spa facility first and then building the retreat around it,” says Manu Rishi Guptha, CEO, Niraamaya Retreats.

India’s wellness potential

Despite India’s first mover’s advantage, the country is yet to realise the potential of this segment despite being a true-blue spiritual home of modern wellness movement. Consider its ancient practices of Ayurveda, yoga, meditation, acupuncture, naturopathy, panchakarma and holistic health, therapies that travellers will seek out.