The Big Picture: Huge Growth Ahead With the pandemic ushering in a major consumer “values reset”–where prevention and wellness take on far greater importance–the GWI predicts that the wellness economy will grow an impressive 10% annually through 2025, when the market will hit $7 trillion. This graph charting growth through 2025 says it all… Now let’s look at how each market fared during the pandemic–and its future outlook… MARKET SNAPHOTS: Wellness Tourism (pandemic loser, future winner): Grew…
By Thierry Malleret, economist Experts now predict that in wealthier nations, the future is at least partial working from home. “Remote-first” is fast gaining the upper hand because a) workers want it (people reject the wellbeing toll of commuting and want more agency over their work)–and b) research shows that it boosts productivity. But the work-from-home shift brings a new threat: always-on work and a further erosion of any line between “life” and work. A new study from the World Health Organization shows that among the 2 million people that die from work-related causes a year, the…
Employees—whether hotel workers or investment bankers—are quitting, and superficial “wellness programs” aren’t going to reverse it By Thierry Malleret, economist A recent report from McKinsey that surveyed employers and employees in Australia, Canada, Singapore, the UK, and the US to investigate the “Great Resignation” (or “Great Attrition”) phenomenon found out that 40% of the employee respondents are “at least somewhat likely to quit in the next…
Top 20 International Markets for Wellness Real Estate The GWI’s new research report on the wellness real estate market shows powerful global growth in three short years: expanding from $148 billion in 2017 to $275 billion in 2020. But what are the top twenty national real estate markets and what kind of growth have they seen? The research shows amazing growth across the board: The US, China,…
By Thierry Malleret, economist The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated a distinct pattern of “air pollution inequity.” In the US, for example, PM2.5 exposure (fine, inhalable particles with serious health consequences) is disproportionately caused by the consumption of goods and services by white Americans but disproportionately inhaled by Black and Hispanic minorities. According to a paper published in 2019 by the US National Academy of Sciences, white Americans benefit from a major “pollution advantage”: They experience 17% less air pollution…
How the pandemic has increased the importance of all kinds of wellness for consumers has been much discussed. For the sake of proving the case of “wellness expansion,” let’s just take fitness—one of the sectors hit the hardest by the pandemic. The major fitness researcher IHRSA reported this summer that during the pandemic, 22% of all fitness facilities globally closed permanently–(and they document the market declines for every global region). But in large…
