Mala McAlpin The highly anticipated Global Wellness Summit 2018 has today announced the theme for this year’s conference: ‘Shaping the Business of Wellness’. The 12th annual Summit, held October 6-8th in Cesena, Italy, will facilitate industry leaders from around the globe and focus on both the current wellness landscape, and the key future trends and emerging business opportunities driving the $3.7 trillion global wellness industry.
Over the three days, keynotes, panels and roundtables will dive deep into all industry facets including beauty, healthy eating, wellness tourism, fitness/mind-body, preventive/personalized medicine, complementary/alternative medicine, wellness lifestyle real estate, the spa industry, the thermal/mineral springs market and workplace wellness.
This year will also see the release of the second Global Wellness Economy Monitor. After the first was released in 2014, the report has become a go-to source of industry data with citations among press, industry and government. The full 2018 report will be released and analysed at the Summit, offering an updated picture of the size, scope, trends and five-year growth projections for segments within the global wellness economy, plus in-depth regional-level analysis and top country markets for six global regions.
“There is powerful demand for new numbers and analysis of this fast growing, ever changing industry–and delegates will have first access,” says Susie Ellis, GWS chairman and CEO.
At the Summit venue, delegates will experience a 37-acre campus designed from the ground up to inspire the wellness lifestyle–not only in terms of physical fitness, but also with a focus on environmental sustainability, architectural wellness and mental wellbeing through the beauty of art, music and fashion. The venue also features an expansive research and education centre, state-of-the-art gym and farm-to-table cafeteria, plus a Wellness Fashion Show at the gala on the last evening.
So until we hear the official word from Cesena in October, what can we expect to see coming out of the spa and wellness industry?
“Expansion is happening in what were once regarded as alternative therapies,’ says the Global Wellness Institue’s director of research and PR, Beth McGroarty. “The more kooky or whacky the treatment, the bigger it is.” This includes visible growth in alternative and Traditional Chinese Therapies such as Crystal Healing, Salt therapy, sound and/or Singing Bowl meditation, Vinotherapy, Cupping, just to name a few.
According to Melanie Gleeson, industry pioneer and CEO of Endota Spa, “people are embracing the concept that beauty is more than skin deep. Wellness and spirituality is no longer a niche market; the wellness industry is now booming and worth $3.7 trillion worldwide.”
