The Future Of Wellness: New Data On Wellness Travel, Mental Wellness

20.11.2023 - 17:07 / forbes.com

It’s no surprise, wellness is here to stay. We all knew it. And the Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a leading global research and wellness industry nonprofit, just released the data to prove it.

The comprehensive 100-page report on the wellness industry, The Global Wellness Economy Monitor Report: 2023, was recently revealed at this year’s annual Global Wellness Summit in Miami. The upshot is that the global wellness economy is not only well on its way to recovery after the shock waves of the pandemic, it is surging. Not only is that a very good thing, it is exactly what we all need to hear right now. A 2023 survey released by the American Psychological Association showed that three-quarters of adults say their stress levels have increased over the past year.

In the report, GWI forecasts that the consumers will continue to increase spending on wellness, and the global wellness economy will grow at an annual rate of 8.6 percent. By the end of this year, it will reach $6.3 trillion, $7.4 trillion in 2025, and $8.5 trillion in 2027­, which is almost double its size in 2020.

The biggest growth rates since 2020 were seen in these wellness markets: wellness tourism (36 percent annual growth); spas (22 percent); physical activity (14 percent); and mental wellness (12.5 percent).Through 2027, some of the largest gains will be seen in wellness real estate (17.4 percent annual growth), wellness tourism (16.6 percent), thermal/mineral springs (14.3 percent); and mental wellness (12.8 percent).

The GWI Report took 10 months to complete. Research was led by Ophelia Yeung, senior research fellow, Global Wellness Institute, who holds a post-graduate degree from Princeton University, and Katherine Johnston, senior research fellow, Global Wellness Institute, with a post-graduate degree from Georgetown. The long-time economists have worked in research, consulting, and public policy in dozens of countries, working for multinational organizations, companies and governments, in economic development. They initiated their wellness research 15 years ago, in 2008, when they first started working with the Global Wellness Summit to measure the size of the global spa industry.

Here is Yeung and Johnston’s fascinating insight on what the wellness market will look like over the next few years, and why.

The wellness economy consists of eleven industry sectors that enable and support people to live a healthy lifestyle, to prevent disease and to move toward a state of holistic health. What we measure as the $5.6 trillion global wellness economy captures the massive global consumer marketplace that has arisen to provide people with access to a mind-boggling array of products, services, and experiences to support their wellness and