Every tourism board and hospitality property on earth wants to attract visitors who spend big. Well, recent Global Wellness Institute (GWI) research reveals if you want tourists who are exceptionally healthy for your bottom line, pay close attention to the healthy-minded traveler. Wellness tourists tend to be wealthier, better educated and take longer trips—and both the international and domestic varieties spend SIGNIFICANTLY more than your average tourist. How much more?
“Employer incentives for U.S. worker wellness programs set record”
A survey just revealed employers have ratcheted up the financial incentives they offer workers to participate in wellness programs to an average of $693 per employee (in 2015), up from $594 last year and $430 five years ago. However, fewer employers are imposing penalties, like charging more for insurance if workers do not participate or achieve goals such as losing weight. This may be due to the fact that workplace wellness programs are increasingly coming under legal scrutiny.
What’s on my mind? Workplace wellness is a mess. I think we can help.
The good news? More companies, large and small, are recognizing that helping employees stay healthy is a good idea. The bad news? No one has figured out how to do it. Hence the mess.
But I also see opportunity. And that’s what’s on my mind.
This is the year to seize this opportunity—together. It’s one of the reasons this topic will be on our agenda at the Global Wellness Summit in Mexico City this November. The timing is right. In preparation, I’d like everyone to experiment with workplace wellness in their current workplace: Try something you think could make a difference. And let me know what you learn.
Trending Again: Wellness Homes & Cities
Humans spend 90 percent of their time indoors, but there has been precious little attention paid to designing buildings with an eye to boosting human’s physical and mental health. Until now. Wellness real estate is a rising trend, and it’s not just about amenities like amazing gyms/spas, but also “baking in” passive healthy building features like optimized air, water, lighting and flooring.
Visual Cues Can Contribute to Weight Loss
Can the mere absence of stimulus lead to measurable changes in eating behaviors? A Harvard professor of economics believes so and headed to Google’s employee micro-kitchens in Boulder, Colorado, and New York to help “lend weight” to his theory. The results? When the stimuli of tempting snack foods are merely removed from sight, eating patterns can change dramatically. Read more to see how visual cues affect casual grazing patterns.
GWI Barometer Excerpt Thierry Malleret (March 18, 2015)
Renowned economist Thierry Malleret has a unique ability to scan the global landscape and boil down the “must-watch” issues for any decision-maker/investor. And for the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) he “connects the dots” for the wellness industry.
Read on to see what he identifies as the top four economic and political issues facing our world right now. And on the wellness front: Will the long “McDonald’s era” soon be replaced by a “Farmer’s Market era”? What do the current, sometimes violent, global “currency wars” mean for international travel—and wellness travel—this summer and beyond?
