The concepts of wellness and medical tourism are becoming increasingly interwoven, with each industry incorporating aspects from one another. Wellness resorts, renowned for their holistic offering, are now incorporating diagnostics and advanced results-driven treatments as a part of their service platform. Meanwhile, medically-focused destinations are seeking to extend their offering by including various wellness services. This Horwath HTL Health & Wellness report sets out to determine the differences between medical and wellness tourism, as well as discuss each segment’s characteristics and perimeters, provide best practices and considerations for successful operations, and anticipate market changes within the industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated interest in the health and wellness industry, highlighting the convergence of medical and wellness tourism.

The latest report by Horwath HTL Health & Wellness provides key guidelines to successfully design wellness resorts. In order for wellness resorts to serve their purpose of providing immersive and transformative experiences to their guests, a specialized and meticulous design process is required. Such a process must not only ensure that physical spaces are in tune with the particular psychology of guests staying at wellness resorts, it must equally enable delivering personalized, seamless and intuitive guest services. Starting with an overview of wellness resort characteristics and the unique mindset and behaviors of guests staying at such resorts, this paper demonstrates the crucial importance of placing guest experience and ease of operations at the core of the wellness resort design process.

The rise of wellness travel globally has positioned spas as essential components of the hospitality experience, transitioning them from “nice-to-have” facilities to core revenue drivers. To achieve profitability, spas must be integrated into the hotel’s core business model and managed actively. This report explores the key physical and operational attributes that influence spa profitability and offers strategies for enhancing financial performance.

This latest report from Horwath HTL Health & Wellness, aims to provide an understanding of the wellness real estate market, define the distinctiveness of its development process, and explain why a specific approach is required. As people are becoming increasingly aware of the impact of lifestyle and environmental factors on their wellbeing, a USD 134.3 billion wellness real estate industry is emerging as a solution to support individuals and communities to live healthier lives. In order to achieve such an outcome, wellness real estate follows a development process that presents certain key particularities as compared to traditional real estate.

Mental health issues have been increasing dramatically and could possibly cost the world approximately USD 16 trillion by 2030. However, there are certain measures that can be taken that aim to help people whilst also reducing this cost. Such measures include, amongst others, wellness retreats, especially the increasing numbers of which that have started developing mental health programs directed at relieving individuals of stress and anxiety. This latest report from Horwath HTL Health & Wellness, sets out to explore the determinants of mental wellness in society, highlighting some of the many alternative healing methods available and addressing what this could mean for the hospitality industry.