Each year a team of research analysts develops the SpaFinder Wellness Trend Report. The in-depth forecast is developed from ongoing surveys with the SpaFinder
Wellness Network, which consists of over 20,000 spa, wellness, fitness and beauty providers, thousands of travel agents and hundreds of thousands of consumers. We conduct ongoing interviews with top industry stakeholders, review current research, articles and case studies and our team of editors and experts visit spa and wellness establishments regularly. Our goal is to get the industry, and the consumer, thinking further ahead and to provide data and analysis to support each trend.
1. Healthy Hotels:
The very concepts of a “vacation” and business travel have long been associated with riotous excess: too much eating, drinking and too little sleep in the stately pleasure palace that is a hotel. This century-old model has left too many travelers less healthy when they check out than when they check in. But, with a global stress and chronic disease epidemic intensifying—and more people stressed out 24/7—what constitutes a true “vacation” and “hospitality” is now being rewritten. In 2013 (and beyond) far more hotels will serve up health-focused guest experiences and “wellness everywhere” environments bent on delivering much-needed revitalization for people who simply can no longer afford “the old travel.” If the gym and spa have traditionally been positioned as mere “amenities” (locked up in the hotel basement), now those walls are being conceptually (and literally) broken down. And this healthy hotel trend takes diverse forms: from the rise of wellness-branded hotel chains, to far more fitness, spa and healthy eating and sleeping programming percolating across so many more properties.
2. The Mindfulness Massage…and More
Swedish, Thai, shiatsu, hot stone…make way for “the mindfulness massage” in 2013, a creative blend of two effective approaches—mindfulness techniques and bodywork—that when combined can have a uniquely positive, profound impact on people’s stress levels, emotions and brains. This new massage “mix” addresses the wellbeing of both body and mind, and because it helps people relax more quickly and deeply, it’s a highly desirable solution for anyone who has lain on a massage table, unable to shut off the brain-chatter from the stresses of the day. Also look for significantly more mindfulness, meditation, positive psychology and mental wellness programming on global spa and fitness center menus next year, in general. Because, as Jeremy McCarthy, director of Global Spa Development and Operations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, recently, perceptively noted, if the last decade was all about “happiness,” the next will be “all about mindfulness.”
3. Earthing
Experts point out that human brains and bodies evolved to thrive in natural environments: to chase and be chased, to work the earth, and so on. Now, relatively suddenly, most people are severely disconnected from nature, living in concrete jungles and spending their lives in front of various screens. The fallout: “Nature Deficit Disorder,” a term describing a range of physical and emotional ailments afflicting people cut off from the natural world. “Earthing” specifically refers to the movement promoting direct contact with the earth’s electron-rich surface (walking barefoot, etc.) as foundational for health.
4. Genomics & Spa (…Telomeres & beyond)
Genomic testing ushers in a new, science-based foundation for more precise preventative medicine, and is poised to increasingly provide people with genetically grounded roadmaps for how they might live better and longer. As tests get easier to administer (saliva-based), more spas will offer them, and more will partner with medical professionals to provide authoritative analyses of results and ensure the right “prescriptions” for lifestyle change.
5. Authentic Ayurveda and other ancient revivals
Spas have always broadcast the ancient pedigrees of their healing practices, whether hydrotherapy circuits originating in ancientRomeor millennia-old yoga traditions. Too often, however, a “lite” version got served up (a few Ayurvedic touches here, a steam room dubbed a “hammam” there). And, typically, all this venerable ancientness got played out in a modern, blandly beige space. Change is coming: Expect more aggressively authentic and comprehensively executed global wellness experiences—a distinctly “ancient” look, feel and language, and a more expansive, exotic menu of wellness traditions explored—at spas.
6. Color self-expression
Beauty has taken a bold, theatrical turn of late, with the old “Barbie-doll prettiness”—a “healthy glow,” natural highlights, a dab of lip gloss and a French manicure—under radical revision. In 2013 the envelope-pushing trend will only intensify. And from hair to nails, this beauty “self expression” wave will get most intensely played out around COLOR. Yes, dramatic color has been surging, but despite predictions that it will surely wane, it looks to be an irrepressible, endlessly self-reinventing force. So, look for even more color washings of hair and face (in in-your-face shades)—more body art hitting bodies of every gender and age (even performed at new “tattoo spas”)—and technicolor nail designs as painstakingly rendered as the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling. Subtler aspects: a powerful rise in skin brightening and lightening products and treatments.
- Inclusive Wellness (rethinking “disability”)
Given forces like a massively graying global population and a focus-shift at spas from exclusive pampering to delivering true, inclusive wellness, more spas (and fitness centers) will now get their own “disability act” together. In the future bodies that are welcomed at spas will align better with bodies found in the real world. More spas will modify facilities and equipment to accommodate people with physical limitations and other special needs, and more will help people heal and keep their bodies functional by offering pain relieving, mobility-enhancing therapies and “functional fitness” programs to help real bodies cope with real-life activities.
8. Label-conscious Fitness
“Name-brand” fitness has been around for decades, but fitness programs, often branded by celebrities and fitness gurus, have exploded (and receded) as media-driven tastes and fashion changed over the years. But today being fit is the new luxury, and the manic mechanisms of chasing the new, the “in”, and what the insider elite is doing, have infused the fitness world with a distinct “haute couture” vibe, with new methods and classes spawning like fashion brands—in every imaginable style. While some fitness labels may be just a fad, label-conscious fitness is a serious trend that’s not going anywhere. Brands will remain a permanent feature of the fitness world future as hundreds (and hundreds) of trademarked and registered programs/classes create a sea of ™ and ® symbols. This label-ization and brand naming is proliferating across every major fitness category, and even proponents of a sensible “back to basics”/no “fad” approach don’t hesitate to use a label to describe their programs (think functional fitness and core training).
9. Men: From barbers to “brotox”
If the spa-man headlines for the last decade have been all about rugged relaxation and rejuvenation, you might say that the big story now is Restylane and Juvederm. Just a couple years ago the term “metrosexual” (referring to a niche group of men hypermeticulous about appearance) caused knowing laughter, but now the term just feels silly and obsolete. Men globally are spending SERIOUS money on their looks (from head to toe) and the male grooming, skincare and cosmetic procedures markets are exploding. And far more spas are building out comprehensive, for-men “beauty” menus: whether skincare, mani-pedi, waxing and threading services, or more intense work like BOTOX®, fillers and surgeries. And yes, many of these “man-ity” services are still getting played out in spa/med-spa environments with that reassuringly masculine, “guy’s guy” vibe and language.
10. Where The Jobs are
The world has a nasty jobs problem: an unemployment backlog of 210 million people worldwide and 30 million jobs lost since the recent recession.1 Economists argue that 400 million new jobs will need to be created over the next decade2 to avoid this crisis from worsening. The cry for “jobs, jobs, jobs” dominates political discussions, as it did, for example, in the recentU.S. presidential election. But while “high-tech” is the much-discussed job-creation savior, there is too little recognition of the opportunities within the growing, talent-needy, “high-touch” spa and wellness industries. In fact, with the US$2 trillion-plus wellness market continuing to explode, it’s led to a different kind of job crisis for industries like spa, fitness, Pilates and yoga: The demand for talented spa directors, managers, therapists and aestheticians—and diverse wellness professionals and practitioners—will simply outpace supply in 2013 and beyond. And, as a result, businesses and governments will get organized and ramp up initiatives (whether training programs or better compensation) to attract, and create, the talent they desperately need.
Spa and wellness: A powerful job-creating force. Look for more job-hungry people and governments to digest that in 2013 and beyond. And look for significantly more action on the education front, to ensure more people have the right skills for all of these jobs.
Tags: Genomics & Spa, Global spa and wellness trends, Healthy Hotels, Mindfulness Massage
