Revolution in Wellness Travel: Shifting Towards Active Well-being and Experiential Journeys Post-Pandemic

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Comprehending the shift from traditional wellness travel to active wellness is crucial for all destinations aiming to develop effective strategies that engage this evolving segment, which has undergone significant changes in motivation and interest post-pandemic. Mabrian, a leader in travel intelligence, has conducted an in-depth analysis of the primary demand drivers for wellness travel, charting the segment’s evolution and its main influencers.

After analyzing 6.7 million TripAdvisor reviews on in-destination activities from 2019 to 2023, Mabrian pinpointed five primary demand drivers for active well-being: physical recreation (sports), soft hiking (excursions and walks), and water sports, all of which have seen an upward trend over the past four years; as well as traditional wellness and relaxation activities (spas, hot springs), and culinary experiences.

Mabrian introduced the concept of active well-being at the 12th World Congress on Snow, Mountain, and Wellness Tourism, hosted by UN Tourism and the Government of Andorra. This concept emerged from a comprehensive analysis of all potential experiential demand drivers, refining the definition of a wellness traveler to include preventive, proactive, lifestyle-enhancing activities such as fitness, healthy eating, relaxation, pampering, and healing treatments.

Transforming active well-being into tourism products

Mabrian’s insights reveal that travelers are reshaping their engagement with destinations, seeking active participation in activities that merge exploration and leisure, all contributing to their quest for a balanced and healthier lifestyle. Indeed, Mabrian’s analysis shows the wellness demand drivers with the most significant growth are soft hiking (+5.1%), physical recreation (+4.7%), and culinary experiences (+3.5%).

These trends present opportunities for destinations to create accessible tourism products and ancillaries that appeal to the proactive modern traveler, as well as to develop experiences that blend outdoor and natural resources with global experiential trends, such as hiking and camping tours, biking, kayaking and canoeing, running tours, and even cooking classes. This holistic approach to wellness planning and promotion can greatly enhance smart destination planning and promotional strategies.

Europe, leading in active well-being

The European travel market exemplifies the strength of the active well-being trend. Aligned with this updated wellness concept, which leans towards experiential travel, motivations have increased by 8.2% since 2019 and currently account for 48% of European travelers’ reasons for choosing a destination. The aftermath of the pandemic has spurred this change in habits, affecting consumption and lifestyle, including travel and tourism, with significant growth particularly in experiences related to nature, outdoors, and active lifestyles.

Carlos Cendra, Partner and CMO at Mabrian, states: “The traditional, passive tourist is evolving into a proactive traveller; from contemplative visitor to an experiential participant in the dynamic of the destinations. That is why we need to redefine the wellness traveller concept, expanding it to an active well-being traveller and, under this new light, outdoor activities and the contact with nature should be at the core of our travel value proposition”. As Cendra highlights: “It is not about building complex products, but using the resources we have: it could be as simple as walking, no equipment and no skills needed”.

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