Going Beyond Travel Cliches: How to Sell Wellness 2.0

Looking through a Google News roundup of stories about wellness hotels and I am overwhelmed. There's an avalanche of such accommodations, with new ones springing up everywhere from Ibiza to France, Hong Kong to Yangon.

And yet so many of them simply miss the whole point.

We now are entering the era of Wellness 2.0, where significant upgrades in offerings are expected by the sophisticated guests who are the fuel for the booming wellness market.

New, bold marketing and public relations are needed to successfully sell wellness in this saturated environment. Yet many properties are lagging behind. They don't get the right message tone and don't get the right communication channels.

Then they complain about disappointing results.

Fixes are easy however.

If you are selling rooms and scenery you are entirely missing the mark.

What today's wellness consumer wants isn't a room, it's a unique wellness experience.

Rooms are fungible, fancy talk for interchangeable. Experiences are one of a kind and right now the smartest wellness facilities are hunting for guest experiences that will really matter.

Sure, there are plenty of hotels and spas that sell "pampering" and there are of course guests who want that. No problem if that is where you're at. But wellness 2.0 is way beyond that and so are the guests who crave it.

Authentic, real experiences are what matters in today's wellness. Note the word "authentic." As Skift noted in a write up, no word has been so co-opted in travel marketing as experience and that is so true.

But it is just as true that wellness travelers crave genuine experiences.

Experiences cover a wide range of possibilities, from a six-mile morning hike in the McDowell Mountain Preserve in Scottsdale to learning how to make and drink jamu in Bali (where locals swear by this traditional, local herbal concoction) and how to use crystals to better plan your day's activities. The right Ayurvedic treatment - in India, the Maldives, and environs - will stick in a traveler's mind. So will a chakra alignment in the right place and time.

Think local. Think informative. Think about giving guests something they leave with that they didn't have when they arrived.

This is all very different from what luxury spas served up at the start of the movement 20 years ago. But different times mean different ways of creating successes. Baby Boomers now are focused on longevity - often involving changing one's life in fundamental ways - and Millennials, too, are drawn to learning experiences that produce life changes.

Zero in on the trends and don't underestimate how knowledgeable guests are before they arrive. Twenty years ago, a spa director could assume a guest had never before had a Tarot reading. Now most have had dozens and many own their own deck of cards and can do readings themselves. We just are much smarter and that has to show up in wellness offerings.

Not every experience will stick with every guest - but every guest should leave a wellness retreat knowing several new approaches to optimizing personal wellness.

Not every experience makes good sense, either. There are many fads - transitory moments like coffee with butter and coconut oil, to pick one - that can be safely ignored. Hunt for the experiences that will last, that prove their worth by fueling life changes. Case in point: scrupulously serve only foods that promote health. Consumers want this - 67% of us prioritize healthy or socially conscious food according to Nielsen - so give it to them and while you are at it offer help and guidance about food to guests who want it. I know at least one wellness resort that offers sessions with a grocery guru and that just may be an idea worth trying out.

Here's the money question: how do you portray experiences to prospective guests? My advice is to double down on images and video - show the experiences unfolding - and to use some first-person commentary about the experiences too. But this is a case where a picture is worth the proverbial thousand words. And, word of advice, show the faces of those in the experiences. The faces will tell the truth.

And that's all the convincing many prospective guests will need.

Babs Harrison
Babs Harrison + Partners
Babs Harrison + Partners