A seismic shift is happening in travel, with wellness transforming from an amenity to the primary driver of guests' destination and accommodation choices. Today's travellers seek authentic wellness experiences that align with their values and lifestyle aspirations. To attract these discerning guests, hotels must embrace the wellness revolution and fully integrate it across their marketing.
As the wellness travel market balloons to over $639 billion, it's evident wellness is not a fleeting trend but a fundamental reimagining of what hospitality means. Savvy hotel marketers who tap into the wellness zeitgeist will gain an unbeatable competitive edge. Here's how to share your unique wellness story.
Table of Contents
Developing an Authentic Wellness Brand
The foundation is an authentic brand identity that blends wellness throughout your ethos, offerings, and communications. Avoid vague, superficial claims. Articulate what wellness principles truly define your hotel. Leverage your local surroundings to create a sense of place. Curate meaningful experiences versus tired cliches. Your branding should feel genuine and multi-dimensional.
Appoint an internal "Chief Wellness Officer" to oversee the integration. Audit all guest touchpoints to identify how to insert wellness. You should reorient programs, materials, and staff training around showcasing your ethos. Guests will feel aligned with your hotel when every detail brings your brand values to life.
Crafting Targeted Wellness Revolution Positioning
Clarify your hotel's niche in the market. Are you a luxury spa escape, an eco-adventure hub, or a spiritual retreat? Define your specialty, then thread that positioning through all marketing.
Avoid vague "everything to everyone" messaging. Targeting specific traveller personas like families, couples, and corporate groups. Speak directly to what matters most to them. The more tailored your outreach, the better it resonates.
Optimising Your Wellness Revolution Marketing Funnel
Engage travellers at each stage of their guest journey:
- Inspiration Phase: Share vivid photos and videos transporting followers into your wellness experiences. Spotlight unique local elements that set you apart. Partner with influencers to give their audiences an insider's look.
- Research Phase: Showcase your wellness offerings prominently on your website. Promote special packages and retreats through dedicated landing pages. Include detailed amenity info, programming schedules, and ways to customise stays.
- Booking Phase: Make booking seamless through online reservations, integrating any pre-arrival health surveys or wellness package selections. Offer personalised recommendations during the booking process.
- Experience Phase: Continue storytelling through on-property collateral like in-room menus describing the origins of ingredients. Infuse wellness into every guest touchpoint.
- Post-Stay Phase: Follow up with surveys to keep improving. Share photos of their visit on social media. Provide wellness tips and destination inspiration to keep your hotel top of mind.
Making Wellness Revolution Tangible Through Storytelling
Today's travellers value experiential marketing that transports them into your world versus straightforward product features and room specs. Share the unique backstories of your wellness offerings through vivid storytelling:
- Profile local artisans you partner with for organic cuisine or spa treatments
- Convey your property's rich history and restoration
- Detail the origins of indigenous design elements and activities
- Describe nearby farms where you source produce and how they practice sustainability
- Explain the cultural significance of healing arts like meditation or sound baths. The more you reveal the heart and soul behind your wellness experiences, the more irresistible they become.
Aligning Wellness Revolution Touchpoints For Seamless Guest Journeys
While bold marketing sets expectations, your ability to deliver seamlessly shapes guest satisfaction. Conduct an in-depth customer journey analysis through every step of the guest lifecycle. Identify gaps between the wellness experience promised versus the actual reality. How can you evolve each touchpoint to align with your ethos?
Empower staff to embody your wellness vision so they can knowledgeably guide guests. Curate welcome gifts featuring local wellness products. Share suggested wellness itineraries before arrival to inspire exploration. Infuse healthy menu choices, spa music, and natural design everywhere. When marketing and delivery fully converge, you cement trust and loyalty.
Tracking Wellness Revolution Marketing Performance
To continuously improve your wellness positioning and storytelling, closely monitor performance across all campaigns, channels, and content.
- Which specific offerings or packages drive the most conversions?
- Do specific wellness-focused campaigns outperform others?
- What content best engages target audiences?
- How are new wellness programs impacting occupancy and revenue?
Consistently testing and optimising allows you to double down on what resonates to convert and delight today's wellness travellers.
The wellness revolution is transforming travel's future. Will your hotel lead this change or risk getting left behind? You can create deep guest connections while sustaining revenues by embracing wellness holistically across your brand, programming, and marketing. With wellness as an anchor, you future-proof your property to thrive for generations.
Let's discuss how to showcase the singular wellness experience only your hotel can provide.
FAQs
What are the latest wellness traveller statistics I should know?
- Wellness tourism grew over twice as fast as overall tourism between 2015-2017 (6.5% vs. 3.2%)
- The global wellness travel market is now worth $639 billion
- 691 million wellness trips were taken in 2017, up 56% from 488 million in 2015
- Wellness travellers spend 53% more on average than other tourists
What are the top ways I can make my hotel website more wellness-focused?
- Share your wellness philosophy front and centre
- Prominently showcase wellness offerings, classes, retreats
- Create robust wellness package detail pages
- AddTripAdvisor reviews praising your wellness features
- Optimise for keywords like "wellness hotel" and "wellness retreat"
How can I capture professional-quality photos/videos of our Wellness Revolution experiences?
- Hire a specialist hotel or travel photographer for an on-property shoot
- Style guests enjoying amenities like the spa for more authenticity
- Take lots of spontaneous photos during retreats or activities
- Invest in drones and high-quality video equipment to showcase all angles
What's an example of a powerful wellness-focused email marketing campaign?
Share practical wellness tips aligned with your philosophy, like:
- A 7-day meditation challenge to reduce stress
- Recipes using local superfoods from your region
- Yoga pose video tutorials filmed on your property
- Mini-retreat itineraries guests can replicate at home
Should I hire a specialised wellness marketing agency?
For many larger hotels and resorts with extensive programming, partnering with dedicated wellness marketing experts can be worthwhile to develop branding, plan campaigns, produce assets, and analyse performance. Your existing agency can often incorporate a wellness focus into their strategies for smaller properties.
What mistakes should I avoid when marketing my hotel's wellness offerings?
Don't make vague, unsubstantiated wellness claims that lack authenticity. Avoid unoriginal, played-out wellness imagery and tropes. Don't fail to deliver on the wellness experience promised through marketing. Don't forget to showcase unique local elements that set your property apart. And steer clear of superficial gimmicks without substance.
How can I measure the ROI of increased wellness marketing?
Track performance metrics tied to specific wellness campaigns like click-through rates, traffic to landing pages, online bookings generated, and which packages/retreats see the most considerable uptake. At the property, analyse wellness revenue, F&B spending, repeat guests, reviews mentioning wellness amenities, and survey feedback on wellness programming.
Should I create a separate brand identity for our wellness offerings?
This is often unnecessary and risks diluting your core hotel brand. Instead, thoughtfully infuse wellness messaging throughout your current brand identity. Appoint an internal "Chief Wellness Officer" to ensure it authentically permeates all touchpoints. A unified brand where wellness is deeply ingrained resonates more typically.
What emerging wellness trends should hotel marketers keep on their radar?
Keep up with trends like forest bathing, blue mind (water), sound healing, medicinal mushrooms, cannabis wellness, wearable tech, TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), energy work like reiki, circadian lighting, and wellness festivals/retreats. But always put your region's native wellness wisdom first.
How often should I refresh my hotel's wellness-related content?
Ideally, provide a steady stream of wellness content across your blog, social feeds, and emails to stay top of mind all year. Share new staff profiles, visitor stories, behind-the-scenes wellness program development, seasonal recipes, and tips aligned to holidays like self-care Sunday. Make it consistently engaging while avoiding complex sales.
Contact us for more details.
Also See: How to Sell Hotel Reservations Online?
I'm Nathan Baws, a nutrition nerd, exercise and weight loss expert, and an unwavering advocate for good health. As the founder of Emersion Wellness, I'm passionate about crafting Seamless Weight Loss Programs to supercharge hotel revenue and transform lives. We've pioneered the World's First Plug & Play Weight Loss Programs for top hotels and resorts, sparking a wellness revolution. Beyond my professional journey, you'll often find me hiking, swimming, and riding the waves, embracing every moment in nature. Join me on this exhilarating journey towards diet, health and wellness.