Trend: Urban Wellness Resorts Will See Future Growth After Pandemic Pause
Yes, the pandemic fueled a flight from cities to deeper-in-nature destinations for both residents and travelers. Urban wellness resorts saw a pause, but the future is more–and more sophisticated–destinations, because cities are getting a deep “wellness re-think” and a serene wellness sanctuary is an ever more attractive model for a city-stay.
Back in 2019, we predicted that wellness resorts would expand beyond their exotic, far-flung destinations and hit more cities, as the world rapidly urbanized and wellness became a much more powerful overall and traveler value. Then the pandemic hit and we saw the flight from cities and a traveler obsession with deep-in-nature destinations. The urban wellness resort, a trend with powerful pre-pandemic momentum, felt on hold.
Now new chapters are being written: travelers are making a “great return” to cities and research shows that the exodus from cities was already pretty much reversed by late 2021. We predict renewed momentum for the urban wellness resort concept, not just because cities are roaring back, but because the pandemic–which harshly exposed just how “unwell” cities are–has sparked a major rethinking of what a city could and should be. Our 2022 trend, “Urban Bathhouses and Wellness Playgrounds,” explores the many ways cities are being redesigned around more accessible wellness. It laid out how urban landscapes are moving away from cars, pollution and endless consumerism and retail to develop more green and communal spaces; how new manmade beaches, free pop-up wellness and fitness classes, and even water sports are now hitting unexpected cities such as New York, Paris, London, Sydney, Madrid and Tokyo; and how an urban bathhouse renaissance is underway.
The trend is about how more affordable, democratic access to wellness is hitting global cities. But the urban wellness trend is also evolving fast at the high-end level. Bigger, more sophisticated urban wellness resorts and communal “wellness hubs” are being underwritten by a business model that combines the resort with residences and a local membership club. As a result, we’re seeing more ambitious, amazing projects than the urban hotel with a nice spa of yore. This is creating a traveler mindset that would have felt foreign just a few years ago: staying in a wellness sanctuary in a “bright-lights, big city” environment increasingly feels like the right model for an urban trip (and yes, only if you can afford it).
READ MORE for examples of new urban wellness resorts–from Beverly Hills to Bangkok…
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