Steve Dunne, executive chairman of travel marketing consultancy The Brighter Group
Last week I went for my annual health check up – a sort of body MOT if you like.
It was a harrowing old affair as I was prodded, bashed, pulled and pushed by people in white coats purporting to have my best interests at heart.
I’m glad to say that at the end I was given the green light and told that, generally, “for a man of your age” I was in good nick.
However, it was as the doctor was filling in my forms at the end of the session that she made a remark that oddly, had me thinking about the travel industry and, what I believe, is a huge opportunity for the sector.
My doctor’s remark was this: “We have an ageing population, but while people may live longer they will still have health issues that will impact their quality of life in later years – and yet it could all be so different if they just indulged more in wellness in their younger years”.
Wellness. It’s a word that goes with spa and seems, at first glance for someone like me, previously not that interested in the sector, a luxury product for those with bags of time (and money) and who want to indulge themselves.
And yet, when the word wellness is used by a doctor to talk about quality of life it seems to take on a very different meaning altogether.
So, back at the office, I started pouring over reports and statistics. Surfing the Internet looking for information on wellness (and spa) and the possibilities it has for the travel industry.
And my investigations surprised me.
Worldwide, obesity has doubled since 1980. Almost 10% of the world’s population has diabetes and chronic disease is responsible for 60% of all deaths.
More strikingly, and picking up on my GP’s remarks, between the years 2000 and 2050 the proportion of the world’s population over 60 years of age will double.
As I read I started to see a whole new landscape of opportunity unfolding in front of me, for the consumer it seems is generally becoming more aware of wellness and the need to integrate it into every facet of their life – including travel and leisure.
The global tourism industry is estimated to be worth some $3.2 trillion according to SRI International, an independent, non-profit research institute, and within that the wellness tourism sector is already worth $439 billion.
However it was the next fact I stumbled upon that convinced me that the travel industry needs to take serious notice of wellness as an area of opportunity.
The wellness tourism segment is projected to grow by 9.1% annually for the next three years, a growth rate nearly 50% higher than that of overall global tourism.
Further facts consolidated my developing view. According to findings revealed in the Global Spa & Wellness Summit last year wellness tourists spend 130% more than the equivalent leisure tourist on a trip.
As I continued to dig around it rapidly began to emerge that the UK languishes some considerable distance behind the rest of the world in understanding and taking advantage of this developing marketing opportunity.
Whereas in the US, Canada the middle east and many parts of Europe too, wellness is the market being rapidly developed, here in the UK, with one or two notable exceptions of course, the market goes largely unnoticed.
But I also detected a stirring in the trade.
World Travel Market this year will have its first programme to support wellness tourism for example and there is a slow but steady dawning of this growing demand in pockets of the UK travel industry.
It’s clear that people today, regardless of age, are starting to think about their health far more than any previous generation.
As the “we’re all living longer message” grows it will lead, inevitably, to a secondary message infiltrating the consumers mind – that quality of life means the active pursuit of wellness. That presents a huge opportunity for agents and operators alike.
So perhaps the trade taking an interest in the customer’s desire to look after themselves could lead to a new phase of wellness for the UK travel industry. It’s worth a thought at least.
Maybe all that prodding, pushing, pulling and bashing that customers will increasingly put themselves through, in the interests of health, could have a big and positive side effect for us all.
source: http://www.travelweekly.co.uk / Travel Weekly / Home> News / May 28th, 2014
