At the recent GSWS in Marrakesh, Morocco, important new research that sizes and analyzes the ten sectors that comprise the “umbrella” wellness industry was unveiled. The big finding: wellness is now a staggering $3.4 trillion market – and one of the biggest, fastest-growing industries on earth. Some context: it’s 3.4 times bigger market than the $1 trillion, global pharmaceutical industry.
The 10 Markets Making Up the Wellness Industry:
Current Size & Growth:
1. Spa Industry: A $94 billion1 global market – with 58% growth (from $60 billion) since 2007. Spa locations also grew 47%: from 71,762 in 2007, to 105,591 today.
2. Wellness Tourism: A $494 billion worldwide market, up 12.5% in 2013 (more than the 9% originally forecast). Wellness tourism represents more than one in seven (14.6%) of all travel dollars spent worldwide – and wellness-focused trips jumped from 524 million to 586.5 million in the last year.
3. First Data on the Thermal/Mineral Springs Market: A surprisingly large $50 billion global market, with nearly 26,847 facilities across 103 nations.
4. Healthy Eating/Nutrition/Weight Loss: A $574 billion market – with 108% growth (from $276.5 billion) since 2010.
5. Preventative/Personalized Health: $433 billion market – with 78% growth (from $243 billion) since 2010.
6. Complementary/Alternative Medicine: $187 billion industry – with 65% growth (from $113 billion) since 2010.
7. Beauty & Anti-Aging: $1.03 trillion global segment – clocking 51% growth (from $679 billion) since 2010.
8. Workplace Wellness: $41 billion market – seeing 30% growth (from $30.7 billion) since 2010.
9. Fitness & Mind-Body: $446 billion market – with 14% growth (from $390 billion) since 2010.
10. Wellness Lifestyle Real Estate: $100 billion sector today. (Note: new to the study in 2014, so no growth percentage.)
The MATH AGAIN: It all adds up to $3.4 trillion…
Ophelia Yeung, senior consultant, Center for Science, Technology & Economic Development, SRI, and one of the report’s lead researchers, argued that she only sees more growth ahead: “Prevention-challenged traditional healthcare systems, and an obesity and chronic disease crisis, are simply costing people and governments too much. So, it’s a very good bet that the double-digit annual growth rates across these wellness sectors we’ve tracked these last few years should continue, as more people proactively change the way they eat, exercise, travel, work and live – and more governments are inevitably forced to shift more money to the prevention side of the medical equation.”
Dr. Deepak Chopra noted in a recent speech that, “Wellness is the number one trend in the world today.” This new GSWS research certainly provides some hard numbers to back up his provocative statement.
The full 50 page report is available through the SA Spa Association for members – please send a mail to info@saspaassociation.co.za to request document
