Lifestyle Fashion

A Global Spa Summit and a Global Wellness Institute: Advances for REAL Wellness

Introduction

New York City-based spa industry leaders have built and perfected over seven years two international organizations that are now effectively promoting and guiding the resort spa industry. In this role, these leaders have shown spa and ancillary business owners and managers how mastering and embracing positive wellness values ​​and programs can be both a civic duty and an attractive business opportunity.

The two organizations are the Global Spa and Wellness Institute (GSWI) and the Global Wellness Institute (GWI).

GSWI sponsors an annual Summit, helping each of the last seven years in a different part of the world. It is an invitation-only meeting.

Global Wellbeing Institute

A parent organization, the GWI, operates year-round. It serves as a holding / umbrella organization. In addition to organizing the Summit, it initiates and finances research and conducts wellness tourism. It is an international group of experts. Bring together leaders and visionaries. Its basic objective is to positively impact the future of the spa and wellness industry.

In carrying out its mission, GWI seeks to facilitate industry conversations and collaborations, create and make research information and industry insights widely available, and unleash product and service innovation, all with consideration of sustainable growth and best business practices.

The GWI has embraced a proactive (versus preventive or medicalized) view of wellness, a global perspective, and commitments to integrity (e.g., unbiased research), shared problem solving, and the highest standards of reason, science, and integrity for positions based in evidence, whenever humanly possible.

All REAL wellness enthusiasts should welcome this powerful ally who seeks to advance the wellness movement around the world in a positive and multidisciplinary way, particularly one with resources and connections at the highest levels of decision-making both in the industry. public as well as private.

The Global Spa and Wellness Summit

Dr. John Travis made some presentations at the 8th Annual Global Spa and Wellness Summit (GSWS) in Marrakech, Morocco in September 2014. He and I learned a lot about the spa industry, much of which we neither recognized nor appreciated by full. . We met lovely people who are committed to positive wellness and all that goes with it (e.g. ecological awareness, social policies, economic viability) like the ones we encountered during decades of attending the legendary University of Wisconsin-Stevens National Wellness Conference. Point. . And we develop a new appreciation for the potential of the spa industry. Last but not least (new benefits are bound to be in the offing over time), we achieve more than a few pleasant relationships and begin collaborations that are likely to be enjoyable and productive for years to come.

There were three full days of presentations and all kinds of substantive meetings and fun activities. Forty-five nations were represented among the approximately 400 delegates. The scope of the presentations was impressive, including the attention to architectural design adaptations on the nature of the spa experience, the increasing focus on sustainability, the potential consequences of gender and generational seismic shifts, the anticipated impact of the technology in human interaction and much more. The economic weight of the industry? No less than 3.4 trillion US dollars.

It is an understatement to suggest that the Summit was an extraordinary event. I came away feeling that it could turn out to be a milestone for the industry, and perhaps for the wellness movement as well. It seems to me that spa leaders recognize that they can shape the wellness movement in the direction of positive wellness, as wellness was first pioneered by Dr. Halbert L. Dunn and others half a century ago. By committing to REAL wellness, the industry will provide immeasurable service to its communities while increasing the success of spas around the world.

The spa advantage

With regards to REAL wellness education sponsorship, destination resort spas have at least three advantages over corporate sponsors and other institutional sponsors (for example, hospitals and universities):

  1. Spas have less reason to fear controversy. This allows wellness managers to offer lectures and workshops on topics where program participants may be offended by perspectives and facts that are out of line with their comfort zones. Corporate wellness managers, on the other hand, refrain from sponsoring vital programs such as reason, science appreciation and critical thinking skills, explorations of meaning and purpose, even a focus on humor and fun. Why? Because such discussions are likely to upset many employees, who would rather not be entertained by the thought. Many may feel that these issues cross boundaries, easily offend, or appear to be critical of established norms. Imagine a corporate conference on the right to die. Not likely, however, some experts, such as the late theologian Gerald A. Larue, argued that we are never so aware of the importance of seeking life until we have accepted the reality of mortality and our next encounter with death.
  2. Spas are not focused on cost containment. The company’s wellness offerings are designed almost entirely for short-term savings through less use of healthcare. The so-called wellness teachings are in fact medicalized risk reduction and prevention efforts.
  3. The spas do not primarily have doctors and other medically trained staff. Professionals promote what they know and are not trained or oriented to the principles of physical and mental initiatives that lead to advanced states of well-being totally unrelated to disease or health problems.

The power of the spa industry to inform / shape real wellness

The spa industry wields a great deal of economic power and many opportunities for imaginative programming. The extent of this influence can be glimpsed in a report by SRI International on the global spa and wellness economy. A slide show on the GSWS website highlights the key facts of this report.

Some of the most outstanding findings can be mentioned:

  • The spa and wellness sector is currently a $ 3.4 trillion industry.
  • The spa industry can be described in four economic segments: namely, 1) spa industry, 2) wellness tourism, 3) lifestyle, wellness products and services, and 4) hot springs and minerals.
  • One segment, namely Lifestyle, Wellness Products and Services, is itself valued at $ 2.806 billion. This is a 13 percent growth rate from the previous year.
  • Worldwide, there are 105,591 spas in operation. Asia, with 32,000 installations, has the most. The increases in all regions are attributed to the growth of the middle class.

The future is ahead

The spa industry has more promise and influence than any other to bring the wellness movement to its roots as a positive life-enhancing concept, to think about health in non-medical ways with optimism and joy, to the extent possible. . All of the keynote presentations from the 2014 Summit can benefit a global audience thanks to the generosity of GSWS. Spa professionals and clients who were unable to attend the Summit and the rest of the world, in fact, can learn a lot from the resources available on the GSWS website.

This is true for the lucky 400 who attended, as multiple sessions were held at once at different locations at the Four Seasons, and even delegates were unable to participate in all of the educational offerings. Don’t worry: the GSWS will post videos, white papers, transcripts and PowerPoints of all or nearly all sessions and hundreds of professional photos from the presentation and all the holidays are also available on the site.

How many conferences offer such generosity not only to their paying clients, but to all who need and will surely appreciate such educational opportunities?

Additional information about GSWS

GSWS is an international organization based in New York City. I had the pleasure of visiting and touring the headquarters office a few years ago, and a few months after that, Susie Ellis, the president and CEO, partnered with me on a presentation on spas and wellness at the 2011 National Wellness Conference in Stevens Point, WISCONSIN.

The GSWS mission states that the organization:

represents senior executives and leaders united by a common interest in driving economic development and understanding of the spa and wellness industries. Delegates from various sectors, including hospitality, tourism, health and wellness, beauty, finance, medicine, real estate, manufacturing and technology, attend the organization’s annual Summit, which is held every year in a different host country.

While the Annual Summit is limited to those at the top tier of the spa industry and a few others with close industry ties to related sectors (and some lucky outsiders who win the speaker lottery through invitations to attend as artists) , the information from all Summits is finally available to everyone. This is a very good thing and I encourage you to take advantage of it.

Be okay, and enjoy your next visit to a destination spa, or first, if you haven’t had one yet. Check out the wellness agenda – You may find that REAL wellness educational items are offered.

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