216 | Wellness Travel: Get your business in shape for an emerging trend - a podcast by Jon Albano and Judy Maxwell

Wellness … However you define it, we all want it.

The hospitality industry is one of the business sectors where consumers of wellness seek it.

The Global Wellness Institute reports wellness tourism is a $640 billion industry. In North America alone, travelers made 204 million trips and spent $242 billion on wellness in 2017.

In today’s episode, Lodging Leaders explores the business of wellness in hospitality. We talk to Kristen Intress, a hospitality industry leader and founder of Fit Farm in Tennessee. We hear from Adam Glickman who helped InterContinental Hotels Group launch its wellness brand, EVEN Hotels, and now heads his own wellness-consulting venture called Parallax Hospitality. Also featured is Emlyn Brown, vice president of well-being for Accor Hotels, and Andrew Gibson, chairman of the Wellness Tourism Association.

If you think wellness is a high-falutin’, hoity-toity amenity only the rich can afford to seek out and enjoy, think again. Wellness is an emerging sector in hospitality, growing at 6.5 percent a year. The growth is spread across hotels of all price segments and guest demographics.

Wellness-minded travelers seek a path that not only introduces them to healthy concepts and choices, but allows them to return home feeling better than when they left.

If your hotel can live up to that promise, you can build a healthy bottom line.

Resources and Links



Kristen Intress, founder and CEO of Fit Farm

Andrew Gibson, chair of the Wellness Tourism Association

Emlyn Brown, vice president of wellness at Accor Hotels

Adam Glickman, founder of Parallax Hospitality

Further episodes of Lodging Leaders

Further podcasts by Jon Albano and Judy Maxwell

Website of Jon Albano and Judy Maxwell