US largest national wellness tourism market by far

China made biggest gains from 2013-2015

THE GLOBAL Wellness Institute (GWI) recently reported that global wellness tourism revenues grew an impressive 14 per cent from 2013-2105 (to $563 billion), more than twice as fast as overall tourism (6.9 per cent).

The institute also projected that this “unstoppable” travel category would grow another 37.5 per cent to $808 billion by the year 2020.

And in November during the World Travel Market (WTM) in London, the GWI released new data revealing that international wellness tourism revenues have been growing at a significantly faster clip (20 per cent from 2013-2015) than domestic wellness travel (11 per cent). And that secondary wellness tourism (wellness services sought during travel, but where wellness is not the main purpose of the trip) is growing slightly faster than primary wellness tourism (where the main purpose of the trip is wellness).

The top 20 national wellness travel markets (inbound and domestic combined) were also released, and the US remains the global powerhouse with $202 billion in revenues, or more than three times greater than the No.2 market, Germany. But China showed the biggest growth: jumping from the ninthlargest market in 2013, to fourth in 2015, with revenues growing more than 300 per cent, from $12.3 billion to $29.5 billion.

This new data was presented by the Wellness Travel Symposium at the WTM, which attracted more than 50,000 participants in 2016. The symposium had topics such as ‘Creating a Winning Wellness Strategy for Your Destination’ and how ‘Medical Wellness Concepts Are on the Rise’, featuring numerous global experts and executives – from Vinod Zutshi, secretary of tourism, India, to Joshua Luckow, executive director, Canyon Ranch.

INT’L WELLNESS TOURISM GROWING FAST

Domestic wellness tourism represents the majority of wellness trips (83 per cent) and revenues (67 per cent). But international/inbound wellness travel grew at a much faster rate than its domestic equivalent from 2013-2015 – 22 per cent growth in trips and 20 per cent growth in revenues for international, compared to 17 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, for domestic. While international revenues grew more than twice as fast as domestic, both categories saw strong growth from 2013-2015 – international trips grew from 95.3 million to 116 million, while domestic trips jumped from 491 million to 575 million.

SECONDARY WELLNESS TOURISM DOMINATES AND GROWS SHARE

The bulk of wellness travel is done by secondary wellness tourists, those who seek wellness experiences during travel, but where wellness is not the primary motivation for the trip. Secondary wellness tourists accounted for 89 per cent of wellness tourism trips and 86 per cent of expenditures in 2015 – up from 87 per cent of trips and 84 per cent expenditures in 2013. While the travel and hospitality industry tends to focus on the primary wellness traveller (where wellness is the motivation for the trip), they need to pay keen attention to mainstream travellers who are increasingly incorporating more healthy experiences (whether spa treatments, fitness or food) into their overall leisure and business travel.

According to the report,“The Chinese consumer’s appetite for wellness-focused travel is huge and growing, but the current infrastructure for delivering these services and experiences in China at an international standard is still limited,” noted Katherine Johnston, senior research fellow, GWI.

She said, given the country’s unique wellness ‘assets’ – from herbal medicine to energy work and martial arts – there is enormous potential for China to become both an international and domestic wellness tourism destination.

Most European countries, Japan, and Canada actually showed a decline in wellness tourism revenues since 2013 – and many fell slightly in the rankings – due to significant depreciation of the euro and other major currencies against the US$ during this period.