The wellness industry may be booming, but that doesn’t always equate with a positive market performance. Example: In the U.S., organic food sales have skyrocketed more than 200 percent in the last decade, but organic specialty retailers like Whole Foods or Sprouts have seen stock prices plummet. It’s mass-market stores like Walmart and Costco that have grabbed the majority of the organic market.
Video: The Value of Taking a Year off Work
Watch an inspirational, personal moment at the Global Wellness Summit as CG Funk (Funk Consulting, U.S.) explains the priceless value of taking a year off work and “slowing down.”
GWI Launching Africa Wellness Initiative
The Global Wellness Institute is launching an Africa Wellness Initiative, with a mission of strengthening wellness institutions, training and human resources development across Africa. Chaired by Elaine Okeke Martin (president, Spa & Wellness Association of Africa), it has numerous goals from building a database of African wellness operators and practitioners to protecting and promoting indigenous African wellness knowledge/practices.
Must-Reads from the Wellness World (Week of March 28, 2017)
New World Happiness Report – “Where Are the Happiest Countries?” – CNN, March 21, 2017
The UN’s latest World Happiness Report was recently released, and Norway took the “world’s happiest country” honors for the first time with Nordic/Northern European nations cleaning up: Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland and the Netherlands took the next five spots. The World Happiness Report 2017 ranked 155 countries with six factors explaining much of the difference in happiness among countries. Key finding: social factors like community foundations and trust play an underappreciated role compared to per capita income. For instance, countries like China and the U.S., which have seen recent significant economic growth, saw their happiness scores decline.
Trend Watch: Wearable Fitness Tech Struggling
There is one particular wellness market that is now in trouble: the wearable technology industry, currently dominated by mindfulness apps and fitness trackers. It’s losing its shine and seems to be fighting to live up to the hype. Just a few years ago, it was still dubbed the “next big tech market” (after smartphones), but pioneers and market leaders such as Fitbit and Jawbone are struggling, while larger, more established tech players such as Motorola have abandoned the market altogether.
World Population is Aging and it’s Good News for Wellness Markets
Since 1900, the average lifespan has more than doubled. A baby born in 2017 in a wealthy country has a 50-percent chance of living to 100. The world population has never been so old, and the trend will only continue, which means anti-aging and wellness products, technologies and services will continue to boom.
