Health and Fitness Travel forecasts the next nine big trends in wellness travel for 2016 including fitness DNA to healthy foodie holidays, ‘bleisure’ and healthy sabbaticals.
1. Fitness DNA
38 Degrees North Aguas de Ibiza
Taking personalised fitness training to a whole new level, the emerging science of DNA fitness testing reveals an insight into your genetic makeup and the appropriate training response for your body.
Through pre-arrival DNA analysis, fitness holiday programs can then be tailored to your physical ability and needs.
Determining factors of your physical DNA, such as whether you are highly prone to injury, the decision can then be made as to whether it is better to push your body with an intense bootcamp workout or take things easier with low impact activities such as yoga and walking.
Top 3 Fitness Holidays: Kamalaya (Thailand), 38 Degrees North Aguas de Ibiza (Spain), Thanyapura (Thailand)
2. Bleisure & Healthy Sabbaticals for Workplace Wellness
Como Shambhala
With 4 million people recently taking a career break due to stress and burn out, more businesses are supporting employees to boost their workplace wellness with healthy sabbaticals and bleisure trips.
Resulting in a more productive and loyal team, the rise of bleisure travel (mixing business with leisure) allows a better work-life balance as employees make the most of wellness retreats offering business facilities.
For those looking to completely disconnect on a healthy sabbatical, the rise of wellness retreats offering tailored programs of longer durations allows the time to re-set and learn a healthier lifestyle.
Top 3 Trips: Ultimate Luxury Around The World Wellness Trip (Worldwide), Como Shambhala (Bali), Lefay (Italy)
3. Oxygen Therapy & Fitness Training
SHA Wellness Clinic (Spain)
With the increasing effects of pollution and allergies leaving many of us short of breath, more wellness spas are calling us to breath health in through the art of hypoxic training.
Using supplemental oxygen to encourage the natural oxygenation process, improve the efficiency with which your respiratory system can supply oxygen, to lessen the effects of exhaustion, lack of focus and vitality caused by a lack of cellular oxygenation.
Oxygenated fitness training is also on the rise, with oxygen boosted workouts allowing the body to perform to its peak in a constant aerobic state.
Top 3 Destinations: Chiva Som (Thailand), SHA Wellness Clinic (Spain), La Clairière (France)
4. Active Meditation
SwaSwara (India)
Increasingly recognised as an effective way to reduce stress, increase self-awareness and enhance emotional intelligence, mindfulness in a continually hot topic in the wellness industry. Advocating the practice of a meditative state in everyday life, a rise in mindfulness workshops is encouraging a lifestyle of mindful walking, working and eating.
Allowing us to practice the self-awareness of meditation whilst on the move, this healthy lifestyle exercise helps even the busiest of minds experience the inner peace of focusing purely on the present.
Top 3 Destinations: Shreyas (India), Aro Ha (New Zealand), SwaSwara (India)
5. Fertility Wellness
The Chateau (Malaysia)
With the pressure and stress of our modern lifestyles seeing a continuing rise in fertility troubles, more couples are turning to wellness retreats in an effort to banish stress and increase their chances of conceiving naturally.
Through personalised wellness programs incorporating healthy nutrition, healing spa therapies and mindfulness practices, such as yoga and meditation, couples are encouraged to release stress and focus on the now.
Top 3 Destinations: SHA Wellness Clinic (Spain), The Chateau (Malaysia), Ti Sana (Italy)
6. Healthy Solo Travel, Not Just for Singles
Bali Bliss Retreat (Bali)
Whilst the rise in solo friendly holidays has continued to grow amongst single travellers, the rest of the world has watched on in envy at the freedom this blissfully selfish form of travel affords.
No longer the sole reserve of singletons, even those in relationships are now looking to travel solo for the opportunity to focus on their individual wellness goals, whether on a yoga retreat or fitness bootcamp.
Top 3 Destinations: The BodyHoliday (St Lucia), Absolute Sanctuary (Thailand), Bali Bliss Retreat (Bali)
7. Natural Beauty
Karkloof Safari Spa (South Africa)
As the world continues its enthusiasm to ‘go green’, more luxury spas are also turning back to nature, with a resurgence in naturally sourced and produced ingredients, free from artificial chemicals.
Often sourced from local organic produce, the rise of the natural beauty treatment is heightened by the experience of spa treatments in the outdoors, using natural products in their natural surroundings.
Following this trend is a demand for less-invasive, non-surgical cosmetic treatments, which are kinder on our bodies.
Top 3 Destinations: Sonevi Kiri (Thailand), Paradis Plage (Morocco), Karkloof Safari Spa (South Africa)
8. Back to Nature Fitness
Red Mountain Resort (Utah)
A growing group of fitness professionals are calling us out of the gym and back to nature, to discover our bodies natural potential with functional training in the great outdoors, which prompts us to adapt our movements to our immediate environment.
Making the most of their stunning natural surroundings, more fitness holidays are offering jungle gym circuit training, beach bootcamp workouts and guided coastal swimming.
For those looking to push their limits, a rise in fitness holidays offering triathlons and even quadrathlons allows outdoor fitness fanatics to cover a variety of terrains, with beach running, jungle biking, ocean kayaking and abseiling.
Top 3 Destinations: Wildfitness Zanzibar (Tanzania), Active Escapes (Bali), Red Mountain Resort (Utah)
9. Healthy Foodie Holidays
Ananda in the Himalayas (India)
Following the unstoppable rise of healthy eating gurus, healthy foodie holidays are in, with more wellness retreats offering healthy cooking classes and seasonal farm-to-table cuisine harvested from their on-site organic farm or garden.
With a range of healthy diet and nutrition options at retreats around the world, healthy foodies can choose tailor-made wellness meal plans, including alkaline, Ayurvedic, Macrobiotic or raw food diets.
Foodie lovers in search of a cleansing detox will be please to know that juice cleanses are now taking a back seat to soup cleanses, with ‘souping’ offering a more satisfying experience for those looking to detox without forgoing food.
Top 3 Destinations: Fivelements Puri Ahimsa (Bali), The Farm (Philippines), Ananda in the Himalayas (India)