Last week was a fun-filled week of theme park news.
27.04.2024 - 08:55 / breakingtravelnews.com
Understanding the shifting trend of traditional wellness travel to active wellness is key to all destinations, in order to develop successful strategies that tap into this segment, whose motivations and interest have changed dramatically after the pandemic. Based on a deep dive into the main demand drivers of wellness travel, Mabrian, world leader in travel intelligence, traces back the evolution of this segment and its key drivers.
After analysing 6.7M TripAdvisor reviews on in-destination activities from 2019 to 2023, Mabrian identified five key demand drivers for active well-being: physical recreation (sports), soft hiking (excursions and walks), and water sports -all of them showing a growing trend in the last 4 years; as well as traditional wellness & relax activities (SPA, hot springs), and gastro experiences.
Mabrian introduced the active well-being concept at the 12th World Congress on Snow, Mountain and Wellness Tourism, organised by UN Tourism and the Government of Andorra, as the outcome of a more extensive analysis of all potential experiential demand drivers, based on the revamped wellness traveller definition, that includes preventive, proactive, lifestyle-enhancing activities such as fitness, healthy eating, relaxation, pampering and healing treatments.
Turning active well-being in tourism products
Mabrian’s travel intelligence insight shows that travellers are changing their relationship with destinations, as they expect to actively engage in activities that combine discovery and recreation, contributing to their pursuit of a balanced and healthier lifestyle.
ADVERTISEMENT
In fact, as Mabrian analysis reflects, the wellness demand drivers showing the strongest increasing trend are soft hiking (+5.1%), physical recreation (+4,7%), and gastro experiences (3.5%).
All of them pose an opportunity to destinations to build easy-to-implement tourism products and ancillaries that resonate with the proactive traveller of our time; as well as to develop experiences and activities that combine their outdoors and natural resources with global experiential hot trends, such as hiking and camping tours, biking, kayaking & canoeing, running tours, and even cooking classes. Moreover, this holistic approach to wellness planning and promotion has the potential to enhance smart destinations planning and promotion strategies.
Europe, at the forefront of active well-being
European travel market is a good example on the strength of the active well-being trend. Drivers aligned to this revamped wellness concept, closer to experiential travel, increased 8,2% since 2019, and currently represent 48% of the European travellers’ motivations to choose a destination.
The pandemic aftermath pushed this change in
Last week was a fun-filled week of theme park news.
It's been a busy year for the Wells Fargo line of credit card offerings, and its newest card might be one of the best yet for small-business owners.
As the host of popular TV shows ranging from Bizarre Foods to Magnolia Network’s Family Dinner, Andrew Zimmern has traveled and eaten his way across the globe.
As I exited Harry Reid International Airport on a bright March afternoon, my hand flew up to protect my eyes, which had grown accustomed to the dull light of a long, gray Tennessee winter. I’d headed west for the sun, but even more so for the night sky, so I was hoping for clear weather ahead. I climbed aboard a shuttle bus that would take me two hours east to Utah, where I planned to spend a starry night at Under Canvas Lake Powell-Grand Staircase.
The Colombian carrier Avianca is partnering with Cardless to release two new credit cards, which will be available in late May. These cards will utilize American Express as their payment processor.
Saudi is emerging as a wellness capital, with its diverse regions championing bespoke wellness experiences. Its awe-inspiring natural landscapes are the perfect backdrop to reset and restore travellers – think pristine waters, lush green mountains, fresh air, outdoor oases and rolling desert dunes, plus a boost of vitamin D to mark the end of winter.
On International Dance Day, 29 April, world-leading dance organisation Sadler’s Wells in London has unveiled the shortlist of the inaugural Rose International Dance Prize, a biennial prize for new dance creations in any style, showcasing some of the most inventive and daring choreographers around the world at work today. The Rose International Dance Prize consists of the Rose category, for established choreographers presenting a full-length performance of 50 minutes or longer, and the Bloom category, for emerging choreographers with a maximum of ten years’ experience. A prize of £40,000 will be awarded to the Rose category winner and a prize for £15,000 will be awarded to the Bloom category winner.
Earlier this week, Jefferies CEO Rich Handler sold $65 million worth of stock in the investment bank — enough to warrant a press release — partly to buy a yacht from his friend and client, hospitality billionaire and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta.
Actress Samantha Pauly is starring as Jordan Baker in the hot new Broadway musical “The Great Gatsby,” based on the famous F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. The show opened April 25th.
Before joining TPG in 2021, I was a newbie to the world of points and miles. Despite traveling frequently throughout the previous decade, I was oblivious to the benefits of loyalty programs or how straightforward it could be to earn points or miles for airfare and hotel stays.
Etihad Airways has finally reintroduced its beloved Airbus A380 superjumbo on flights to the US after years of uncertainty.
It’s inevitable: Every spring when we pull together the Hot List, our annual collection of the world’s best new hotels, restaurants, and cruise ships, a staffer remarks that this latest iteration has got to be the best one ever. After a year’s worth of traveling the globe—to stay the night at a converted farmhouse in the middle of an olive grove outside Marrakech, or sail aboard a beloved cruise line’s inaugural Antarctic voyage—it’s easy to see why we get attached. But this year’s Hot List, our 28th edition, might really be the best one ever. It’s certainly our most diverse, featuring not only a hotel suite that was once Winston Churchill’s office, but also the world’s largest cruise ship and restaurants from Cape Town to Bali. We were surprised and inspired by this year’s honorees, and we know you will be too. These are the Hot List hotel winners for 2024.