The Global Spa & Wellness Summit has been restructured into the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), it was announced at the eight annual summit in Marrakech on Friday. 

The Global Wellness Institute will be an umbrella organisation that will include the Global Spa & Wellness Summit, the Global Wellness Tourism Congress – which was held for the second year running at this year’s summit – and knowledge website Wellness Evidence, previously known as Spa Evidence. 

Chairman and chief executive Susie Ellis said: “We’re putting up an umbrella and leading people, and that umbrella is going to be the Global Wellness Institute. We are not just talking to ourselves anymore, we’re talking to everyone, everywhere, and they are listening. The time is now; the time has come for the Global Wellness Institute.” 

The organisation will continue to drive spa and wellness research around the world. Both Ellis and Mia Kyricos, a member of the board and chief brand officer of Spafinder Wellness, highlighted corporate wellness, healthy living communities and the establishment of worldwide best practice industry standards as key areas for the GWI, moving forward. 

Kyricos said of the restructured organisation and its aims and objectives: “It’s the collaborative effort that can bring forth work that none-one could have done on their own.” The GSW will also include a tiered membership structure, with different member benefits, depending on the level you sign up for, and the opportunity to become a GWI ambassador.