Hotel & Spa
Insights

Wellness Centric Hospitality Continues To Attract New Investors & Guests

2023 was the Year of Continuous Growth. Across APAC and the ME, hotel occupancy rates surged beyond 2019 numbers and even beyond 2022’s rebound. Hotel development pipelines also grow as investors rush to build new properties and meet the demand of more affluent travellers, business travel and recreational leisure. The demand for lifestyle hotels, wellness hospitality and destination hotels continue to soar. Health-committed guests now seek a variety of experiences to enrich their wellbeing and so social connection, hyper-personalisation and transformational experiences have become mainstream expectations, especially across luxury brands. In-room fitness and wellness are at an early stage but still growing from a low base. The evolution of the traditional spa also continues, with more boutique functional spaces, community events and external memberships being offered. Leveraging new technology and developing employment academies will be crucial to offset the impact of skilled staff shortages, which continues to be the industry’s biggest challenge.

It seems to me that the hospitality industry now unanimously embraces the idea that wellness is an important part of the guest experience. Having spent much of my career trying to convince owners, developers and operators that wellness was both a profitable and necessary part of any luxury hospitality offering, it is exciting to turn a corner into a new era. The wellness industry no longer needs to convince anyone, we just need to rise up and be strong enough to meet the demand.

Jeremy McCarthy

Group Director of Leisure, Spa & Wellness
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group

As a cornerstone of Saudi Vision 2030, Red Sea Global is playing its part to transform the Kingdom’s economy and create significant opportunities for its people through the development of two of the world’s most ambitious regenerative tourism destinations – The Red Sea and Amaala. Wellness is in our DNA and informs actions across all channels from property, product, partners, talent and experiences. As a result, we aim to become an inspiring force for good in the industry and leaders in everything that we do.