Fairmont Windsor Park in the United Kingdom. — Photo by Accor

Wellness has developed into a must-have component of both leisure and business travel, but it is not sufficient anymore for hotels merely to have one area dedicated to health. Rather, hotels must incorporate it into every aspect of the hotel’s design, space and offerings.

Speaking at Accor’s Global Meeting Exchange, Meenaz Diamond, Accor's senior vice president of sales worldwide, said well-being is now at the center of much that Accor is doing. That trend was accelerated by the pandemic, and the push to healthiness has an economic value to it as well as a health-related one.

Mansi Vagt, global brand leader and vice president for Accor's Fairmont brand, said “well-being travelers spend more.”

According to Accor's in-house research, among U.S. stays there is 53% more spend on wellness from international guests and 178% more from domestic ones, said Magdaleena Nikolov, the company's general manager of spa, wellness and retail.

Emlyn Brown, Accor's global vice president of well-being, said there are several areas of health that hotels can bring together holistically for guests: nutrition, design and hotel environment, physical activities and sports, spas and treatments, mental health and mindfulness, and digital well-being.

He said an example of the last pillar is having people detach from their smartphones and social media accounts, live in the moment and enjoy it.

Read the full article at HotelNewsNow (part of CoStar)