Experts and entrepreneurs will be taking the pulse of the booming multibillion-pound wellness sector during WTM London – the global event where ideas arrive.
Wellness tourism is currently estimated to be worth more than $639 billion a year – and growing at twice the pace of general tourism – according to the Global Wellness Institute.
Two panel discussions about making the most of this lucrative market will take place in the Inspiration Zones, while scores of exhibitors will display their wellness credentials out on the floor of ExCeL London.
The first will be Launching & Optimising Your Brand in the Wellness Space. It will explore how tourist organisations, hospitality brands and tour operators are increasingly marketing their wellness offerings.
The moderator will be Anne Dimon – Co-founder and President of the Wellness Tourism Association – who has decades of experience in wellness, travel, journalism and PR.
She will be joined by three expert speakers: Emily Mikus, Brand Manager at G Adventures; Mark Hennebry, Vice Chairman at Danubius Hotel Group; and entrepreneur Joanne Vomiero, Director and Founder of In This Life Wellness Travel.
Mikus spearheaded G Adventures’ industry-leading animal welfare policy and helped launch the operator’s new Wellness travel style. Hennebry will talk about his role overseeing 45 hotels with wellness and spa facilities in Hungary, the UK, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. Vomiero has more than 20 years of experience in the sector and owns a wellness clinic in Australia.
Following the debate and Q&A session, Vomiero will demonstrate simple techniques to help delegates ‘Disconnect to Reconnect’.
The second debate titled A New Decade of Wellness Travel, will present an overview of the latest trends, look forward to the next decade in this sector and discuss the outlook with expert speakers. They will be Ozgur Cengiz, who manages the JOALI WellBeing Resort in the Maldives, and Aldina Duarte Ramos, the Global Director of Wellbeing for Accor’s luxury brands.
Meanwhile, delegates can meet more than 150 companies on the exhibition floor, which specialise in wellness. There are also dozens more hotels, tourist boards, tour operators, attractions and venues that offer wellness and spa services.
Highlights include wellness treatments launched by Hastings Hotels in Northern Ireland. The independent hotel group has a new collection of face and body treatments for those who are living with, through and beyond cancer.
Elsewhere in the UK, the Wales Coast Path will promote new guides and itineraries, and a free augmented reality app, which is part of a national initiative to get children more active outdoors.
Coming from further afield, two luxury properties from the Maldives will be at WTM London to market their wellness services.
A private island spa will open in 2020 at Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa on in North Malé Atoll. The luxury wellness area is the final part of a $20 million renovation programme at the beachfront resort.
The Westin Maldives Miriandhoo Resort in the Baa Atoll will also highlight its different wellness themes for each month. Specialist practitioners visit the resort to focus on particular areas of health and fitness, and nutritional menus at the four restaurants and bars support the themes.
WTM London Senior Exhibition Director Simon Press said: “The wellness tourism sector goes from strength to strength each year.
“Our program of debates, backed up by hundreds of networking and business opportunities, means that WTM London is offering a very healthy diet of ideas, inspiration and connections to help firms to make the most of this growing sector in 2020 and beyond.”
Launching & Optimising Your Brand in the Wellness Space – 5 Nov 2019, 15:00 – 16:00 Asia Inspiration Zone
A New Decade of Wellness Travel – 6 Nov 2019, 11:00 – 12:00 Americas Inspiration Zone
Stand: UKI300
Stand: UKI100
Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa
Stand: AS140
Westin Maldives Miriandhoo Resort
Stand: AS140
World Travel Market (WTM) portfolio comprises eight leading B2B events across four continents, generating more than $7 billion of industry deals. The events are:
WTM London, the leading global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend three-day exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry. About 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international media visit ExCeL London every November, generating about £3.4 billion in travel industry contracts.
Next event: Monday 4 – Wednesday 6 November 2019 – London #IdeasArriveHere
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Reed Travel Exhibitions is the world’s leading travel and tourism event’s organiser with a growing portfolio of more than 22 international travel and tourism trade events in Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Our events are market leaders in their sectors, whether they are global and regional leisure travel trade events, or specialist events for meetings, incentives, conference, events (MICE) industry, business travel, luxury travel, travel technology as well as golf, spa and ski travel. We have more than 35 years’ experience in organising world-leading travel exhibitions.
eTN is a media partner for WTM London.
