Wellness Trends Shaping the Future
For over a decade, the Global Wellness Summit’s Future of Wellness report has been the go-to resource for leaders, innovators, and investors who want to see what’s next. These in-depth annual forecasts don’t just track trends—they shape them, offering expert analysis and real-world business implications from across the multi-trillion-dollar global wellness economy. Our trends have impact for years to come.
The Future of Wellness 2025 Trends
This 2025 report dives into high-impact topics like analog wellness, augmented biology, teen wellness, new era for sauna, and cruise and rail travel—plus deep looks at addiction recovery, water stewardship, and the Middle East’s emerging wellness leadership.
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The Future of Wellness 2024 Trends
This 2024 report uncovers game-changing movements including climate-adaptive wellness, pilgrimage travel, Longevity as a new industry pillar, postpartum wellness, and the impact of weight-loss drugs on the wellness market.
2025 Trend Summaries
ANALOG WELLNESS
2025 Will Be the Pivotal Year for a Great Logging Off, and Analog-ing On
The online world’s relentless manipulations, marketing, disinformation and division campaigns, causing general brain and culture rotting, have gone too far. “Digital detox” may be as old as the Internet, but 2025 will be the year more people get aggressive about logging off, and new tools and destinations will help them. They’ll also be “analog-ing on” as never before: hungry for retro, pre-digital tech, hobbies and experiences—as wellness, and in wellness. The analog living trend will shake up tech, wellness, travel, government policy, even home design.
SAUNA REIMAGINED
A Global Renaissance of an Ancient Tradition
While the sauna has been around for thousands of years, it’s currently enjoying a renaissance. From urban saunas in New York City and Chicago, to rustic waterfront saunas in Oslo or Brighton, to saunas with immersive art installations in Tokyo, today’s saunas represent a reinvention of an age-old tradition—and an increasingly younger, hipper crowd is taking notice.
THE SUPPLEMENT PARADOX
Wellness, Efficacy and the Trust Revolution
From hyper-personalized wellness to cellular longevity, supplements are evolving into tools of lifestyle optimization. As innovation accelerates and science meets premiumization, the industry faces pivotal shifts in perceptions of efficacy, transparency and value.
TEEN WELLNESS
A Chance for Greater Inclusion
Teenagers today face mounting mental health challenges, shaped by societal crises, social media pressures and lifestyle changes. The wellness industry has a vital opportunity to support this generation and foster healthier, more balanced lives.
WATERSHED WELLNESS
Industry Takes a Leadership Role in Water Crisis
As water scarcity becomes a growing concern worldwide due to climate change, population growth and pollution, the spa and wellness industry must rise up, both collectively and individually, to address the problem. Spas by nature are intrinsically linked to water—the word spa is said to come from the Latin salus per aquam or “health through water”—but as our planet becomes increasingly less healthy, and droughts and water shortages become more commonplace, it will become imperative for spas and wellness establishments to do more to help preserve, replenish and renew our water supplies.
AUGMENTED BIOLOGY
Unlocking Human Potential Through Advanced Health Optimization
As advancements in health technology and genetic engineering unfold, a new paradigm is taking shape in which health is not merely sustained, but actively optimized and extended. This transformation enables individuals to unlock their full neural, physiological, and psychological potential, fundamentally redefining the nature of human capability.
LONGEVITY REDEFINES WORK
New Wellness Industry Opportunities Arise to Support the Expanding 65+ Workforce
Wellness initiatives, health-focused policies and age-inclusive strategies are essential for businesses and governments to support older workers, improve productivity and foster intergenerational collaboration in the aging labor market.
WELLNESS TACKLES ADDICTION
Wellness Moves Into Harm Reduction and Addiction Treatment
If wellness is the pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health, it makes sense that wellness practices are increasingly being integrated into all manner of addiction treatment—from alcohol to illicit drugs to technology—and that wellness companies are enthusiastically entering the harm-reduction space to help people bring balance and agency to their consumption habits.
WELLNESS ON THE LINE
Cruise and Rail Journeys Navigate to Wellness Travel
Both cruises and rail journeys are increasing their wellness offerings. More ocean liners in many shapes and sizes are exploring innovative itineraries with a host of holistic wellness programs, facilities and health experts, while cruises meandering the river routes are creating authentic wellness experiences along the way. At the same time, there’s a rail renaissance, with wellness on the tracks in dedicated spa carriages bringing slow travel to the fore and journeys by train connecting today’s travelers to age-old spa towns. We take an in-depth look into the trends and developments on the horizon that are shaping wellness on the line.
THE MIDDLE EAST’S WELLNESS AMBITIONS
From Desert Retreats to High-Tech Wellness, the Region Embraces Holistic Wellbeing
The Middle East is rapidly emerging as a global wellness leader, blending cultural heritage, cutting-edge innovation and sustainability fueled by national strategies and new developments.
2024 Trend Summaries
CLIMATE-ADAPTIVE WELLNESS
With an increasingly heat-crushed planet, we’ll see a wave of innovations that can cool our homes, cities and bodies—from a radical rethinking of architecture and design to smart, cooling clothing and thermodynamic wearables to the rise of “cool-cations” and “night-time wellness” in hospitality.
THE POWER OF THE PILGRIMAGE
A record number of new and revitalized pilgrimage trails worldwide are luring new generations to experience the most ancient, slow and spiritual form of travel.
FROM MANNING UP TO OPENING UP
Wellness has been complicit in reinforcing a very narrow view of masculinity—but in 2024, that’s changing with retreats, small groups and apps finally focused on men’s social and emotional wellbeing.
THE RISE OF POSTPARTUM WELLNESS
Post-birth, it’s all about the baby, and the result has been serious, rising mental and physical health crises for new parents. Much needed change is here, from new post-birth retreats for moms (and even dads) grounded in Eastern cultural practices to postpartum mental health apps to a surge in consumer and femtech products.
LONGEVITY HAS LONGEVITY
It’s astounding the speed in which the quest for longevity has seized the health, biotech and wellness spaces. No mere “trend,” it’s the new industry pillar—the lens to reexamine everything we do. With a spawning global network of high-tech, hyper-medical longevity clinics, advanced trackers and tests, and a Blue Zones mindset holding strong, whether you’re low-fi or (very, very) highfi, you have a place in the booming business of longevity.
A WELLNESS CHECK FOR WEIGHT LOSS DRUGS
New weight-loss drugs upended traditional behavior-change wellness businesses, from dieting platforms to gyms, who then opportunistically pivoted to prescribing Big Pharma’s latest magic pills (and pricks). The future of wellness? Creating more integrative, holistic approaches.
SPORTS FINDS ITS FOOTING IN HOSPITALITY
After decades of an industry dominated by lonely solo sessions at the gym, more people globally are embracing social, empowering sports as their fitness, with more training like near-elite athletes. Hospitality destinations are answering the call with pro trainers, pro-level facilities and diagnostics galore.
THE HOME AS HIGHEST-TECH-HEALTH-HUB
Wellness-focused homes have been a megatrend for years (all the cold plunges and meditation rooms). But homes and cities are now becoming highest-tech-health-hubs, with medical-grade diagnostic and monitoring systems, smart furnishings that adjust in real-time to individual wellbeing needs and sensory-enhanced design that extends far beyond concepts like feng shui and biophilia.
A NEW MULTISENSORY, IMMERSIVE ART FOR WELLNESS
Art has always been a static, passive experience. But a new wave of installations and concepts, powered by AI and new technologies, are reimagining art as a deeply multisensory, immersive experience expressly designed to transform your mental wellbeing. And they’re popping up at more resorts, museums and public spaces.
UNDER THE RADAR
Susie Ellis shares her notes on possible emerging trends from the 2023 Global Wellness Summit, where top-level delegates from around the world shared insights on ideas shaping the future.
Take advantage of our limited-time special offer that ends November 30: Get two years of the most trusted wellness forecast for just $125 (regularly $200) – a $75 savings. Includes both the 2024 and 2025 Future of Wellness Trends reports, each packed with over 100 pages of expert insights on the trends shaping health, wellness and business worldwide. Access the insights before this offer disappears!
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