Global Wellness Summit pinpoints key 2017 trends
Wellness architecture, sauna rituals and mental wellness are among eight 2017 trend predictions released by the Global Wellness Summit (GWS).
The trends, which emerged at the 2016 summit, also include silence; art and creativity; treating cancer patients; the effect of wellness on beauty; and accessible wellness.
Wellness architecture is now, a press release from the summit stated, seeing us design “living buildings” that take the health of those occupying them into account.
Elsewhere, the sauna is undergoing a reinvention and becoming an experience rather than just a facility. Examples include sociable super-saunas, pop-up saunas and the rising popularity of the aufguss ritual.
In another development, the global rise in depression is increasingly seeing the spa and wellness sector put mental wellbeing at the centre, including working with psychotherapists and neuroscientists.
Silent rooms, silent retreats and even a silent spa, at Austria’s Therme Laa Hotel, are also increasingly emerging. The appetite for silent spaces is, the GWS said, a reaction to the ceaselessly connected 24/7 world we live in.
Creativity and the arts is also becoming an increasingly important part of wellness, the GWS commented, with music, dance, literature and art more and more incorporated into the offering.
The GWS also predicted that the current momentum around educating the industry on treating cancer patients in spas and training therapists on how to work with this clientele will continue.
Rounding off the eight trends are “wellness remakes beauty” and “beyond the ghettos of wellness”. The former, the GWS said, is seeing the beauty sector adapt to the priorities of an increasingly wellness-centric population, including focusing on beauty from within.
As part of the latter, the industry is addressing the perception that wellness is only for the wealthy; with a rise of more affordable wellness outlets, and initiatives through which the sector gives back to communities.