Why Does the World Persist in Confusing Medical Tourism and Wellness Tourism?

In this letter from GWI Chairman and CEO, Susie Ellis, Ellis notes that there is constant, fresh evidence that the world still doesn’t totally understand that wellness tourism is something wildly different from medical tourism. She discusses the costs of mixing up these entirely separate, unique “tourisms” – for medical professionals, the wellness industry, and above all else, the consumer.

Steve Case: Future Entrepreneurs Will Need to Work with Governments

Malleret discusses insights from Steve Case’s just-published The Third Wave. Although it’s fashionable among investors and the tech set to deride the role of the public sector, he predicts that successful businesses of the future (whether tech, wellness, etc.) will have to figure out a way to work with governments. Case also predicts that today’s fitness trackers will look rudimentary, as future hardware/software will allow users to collect and save all vital sign data – alerting doctors and patients when something’s amiss. Malleret ponders two implications: when all this data about people’s health status/habits is transparent, how will governments regulate their use and what will they do with it to promote healthier behaviors? Also. is there a bubble brewing in some corners of the wellness industry – i.e., low-margin fitness trackers?

Global Wellness Institute Launches Beauty Initiative

Beauty can be represented as a superficial form of consumption, but it serves as a foundation for human feelings, health and happiness. Beauty is wellness, and to better quantify this unsung hero of the wellness/spa industry, the GWI has just launched a Beauty Initiative. Chaired by Mark Wuttke, a global expert in natural, sustainable spa and boutique retail, this Initiative will help the world understand the emotional, physical, psychological, and social relationships between beauty, health and wellness. 

Must-Reads from the Wellness World (Week of May 31, 2016)

“Out With the Old” (New Study Shows Why It’s Better to Tackle Bad Habits All at Once)
– The New York Times, May 12, 2016

New research suggests that it’s better to address all of our bad habits at once rather than try to make incremental changes in our lives. According to one of the scientists involved in the project, “The limits of the human capacity for change may be much greater than we, as scientists, have given people credit for.”