What have been the biggest industry disruptors?
Global warming and COVID-19. Both have led to a shift towards health, wellness, transformative and regenerative tourism which impact every aspect of spa development and operations.
What key innovations can you identify?
The most significant change has been the integration of technology. From wearable tech and biohacking as a shortcut to wellness to the explosion of meditation, breathwork and yoga apps and online wellbeing tutorials and courses.
The next step is to incorporate virtual reality, augmented reality and artificial intelligence into spa offerings to enhance the customer experience.
What do you wish had been invented?
Advanced modalities that can enhance the quality of life in old age, perhaps driven by our understanding of epigenetics and telomeres and using vibrational medicine and advanced frequency-sound capsules that bring about cellular renovation and age reversal.
What’s holding spas back?
While high-tech services will shape our future, the success of spas will only be guaranteed if we maintain our caring human approach. A therapist’s biggest asset is their healing hands, ability to serve from the heart, empathy, intention and whole-person approach, ensuring that each client’s needs and concerns are understood and addressed.
The industry runs the risk of packaging practices into commercial products, driven by greed and profit, rather than focusing on the actual value of wellbeing so treatments lose their true significance and profound importance.
What will the industry look like in 2050?
I hope it will focus on human values and empowerment and that wellness is readily available to children, health providers, blue-collar workers and corporate employees – people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds.
