Nadine Dilong World Wellness Weekend is back for 2020 with a sentiment that rings true now more so than ever; Everyone needs a bit of wellness in their life.
Jean-Guy de Gabriac, the founder of World Wellness Weekend (WWW), is truly passionate about and proud of how fast WWW has grown since 2017. From 160 venues in France and Belgium that participated four years ago, it has now grown to include over 2,000 venues in 98 countries making it the biggest wellness event worldwide.
WWW will take place over 19-20 September and will spread the message of wellness through encouraging wellness activities, which is needed more than ever before. Any wellness professional or business can take part, all you have to do is “organise at least one fun and free 60-minute group workshop, promoting healthy lifestyles, through nutrition, or physical activities, or mindfulness, or sustainability,” says Jean-Guy.
You then register on the WWW website and get the chance to promote your services and offers on there. You can be as creative and innovative as you like when deciding on your offering for WWW. In the past, “hot tubs were installed in the trunk of a car (Effervescences in Royat -France), golfers enjoyed Golf in bathrobe (La Largue Golf Resort – France), there was a “Water Drinkers” Race (Vic sur Cère – France), a workshop about the Art of Napping (Vichy – France), Zumba at Club Med Mandara Spa (Malaysia), Ju Jitsu (Tulum – Mexico) to only name a few,” says Jean-Guy.
Founder of Peninsula Hot Springs Charles Davidson was one of the early Australian supporters of WWW.
“World Wellness Weekend presented a perfect opportunity for Peninsula Hot Springs to speak to our 220,000 + e-mail database of hot springs subscribers and specifically to our visitors during that third weekend of September about the importance of conscious connection and wellness. It was something we could get passionately involved in that speaks to our common purpose. Thank you for making it possible,” he says.
Katherine Droga, who is the founder of Australia’s first Wellness Tourism Summit and Australia’s Ambassador for World Wellness Weekend says she is “excited to support and get behind this great initiative. In this time of COVID-19, maintaining or enhancing your own wellbeing has never been more important. Initiatives like this help to raise the value and importance of taking good care of ourselves.
“Whether you are a local wellness accommodation provider, spa, beauty operator, nature based tourism attraction, retreat provider or wellness practitioner, I encourage you to jump online and join this great global initiative. The benefits for professionals of getting involved are two-fold. By providing a free activity for locals to enjoy on September 19-20, provides you with great exposure for your business on the world wellness weekend platform and PR but more importantly it helps to contribute and support your local communities wellbeing. Any wellness and travel professional who gets involved with a free activity also has the opportunity to promote another paid offer which also further helps your own business during these challenging times.”
Of course, the global pandemic is being taken into consideration during the planning of WWW 2020, with Jean-Guy explaining he has several options for different scenarios.
“If lockdowns are lifted and all businesses reopen, then WWW will serve as a powerful unifying communication platform to make the public want to discover fun and meaningful activities to strengthen the immune system and boost morale in all participating spas, salons, holistic health clinics, hotels, resorts, hot springs, fitness clubs, yoga studios in 100+ countries.”
However, Jean-Guy is also prepared for a stricter lockdown scenario, in which case, “we are already working on a contingency plan with the European Commission to combine our actions on social networks: our #WellnessAtHome and their #BeActiveAtHome.”
WWW is an official partner of the European Week of Sport, which encourages everyone to remain active even while staying at home.
“We are very likely, anyway, to combine these two scenarios,” Jean-Guy ends.
This story was originally published in SPA+CLINIC Volume 82. You can subscribe to our quarterly digital and print magazine here.
