🎬 Opening Scene
Steam rises over blue waters, blending the horizon with a volcanic landscape. People in white robes, wearing silica masks, float in silence or snap selfies.
What you see is more than a thermal bath. It's an investment in health, image, and an experience that promises renewal. Here, the bath isn’t just hot water, it's part of a business where the body is the destination and wellness is the product.
🏛️ Origin
From ancient rituals to modern status
Did you know the history of spas is thousands of years old? In ancient Rome, baths were a place to heal and socialize. In Islamic hammams and Japanese onsens, water was a pillar of physical and spiritual balance. In all these cultures, people traveled in search of their healing powers.
In the 20th century, everything changed. Spas moved into hotels and became focused on beauty and luxury. Traditional baths were joined by massages, hydrotherapy, and later, technologies like cryotherapy.
Wellness shifted from a communal ritual to a personal, and often exclusive, experience. The body has transformed into a destination and a status symbol.
🔬The Phenomenon
Wellness is more than self-care; it's a blend of science, nature, technology, and luxury. Have you noticed how it's transformed into a global journey, ritual, and even a lifestyle?
🇨🇭 Switzerland: In clinics like Clinique La Prairie, wellness is a science. Here, cellular treatments, vitamins, and anti-aging programs are combined with the discretion and service of ultra-luxury hotels.
🇮🇸 Iceland: With its healing geothermal waters in an almost otherworldly landscape, the Blue Lagoon offers an experience where the spa is far more than just relaxation. It's a fusion of health, nature, and visual beauty.
🇦🇪 Dubai: Elite wellness is taken to a whole new level. In ultra-luxury hotels, you'll find everything from hyperbaric oxygen therapy and cryotherapy to robotic lymphatic drainage and sleep capsules. 24-karat gold treatments are the ultimate symbol of opulence, mixing rejuvenation with an incredible sensory and visual experience.
🌍 What This Says About the World
According to the Global Wellness Institute, wellness tourism was worth about $651 billion in 2022 and is expected to surpass $1 trillion by 2024, growing at 16% annually through 2027.
Though it accounts for only 8% of international travel, it makes up nearly 19% of total spending. In other words: fewer people travel, but they spend a lot more.
This segment is growing 60% faster than traditional tourism, driven by rising awareness of health, longevity, and performance.
In Switzerland, cellular revitalization treatments like those at Clinique La Prairie can cost over $40,000 per week. Here, wellness means white coats, private chefs, and genetic testing.
The rise of immunotherapy, biohacking, and anti-aging therapies has made medical spas top destinations for celebrities, athletes, and high-performance executives.
⚠️ The Dark Side
Wellness, as promoted by many of these destinations, is far from accessible to everyone. What happens when a single treatment costs as much as a full year's salary? Health stops being a right and becomes a luxury.
Access to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, cellular treatments, or longevity retreats is less about medical need and more about financial means. Critics point out that this type of tourism reinforces global inequalities: while some seek "elixirs of youth," others struggle for clean water or basic healthcare.
Moreover, the obsession with longevity and constant body optimization can lead to new forms of anxiety, tech dependence, or unnecessary medicalization.
In some cases, what is sold as health is actually a promise of control in an uncertain world.
📌 Curiosities
Iceland has more public hot springs than schools. Soaking in warm water is part of daily life and is considered almost a spiritual ritual.
Roman emperors used to travel with their own bathing staff slaves trained to prepare thermal waters to their liking, including specific oils and scents.
One of today’s trendiest treatments is cryotherapy, where the body is exposed to temperatures as low as -140 °C for three minutes, promising to boost cell regeneration.
In Turkey, some luxury hotels offer Intravenous detoxification menus, vitamin cocktails delivered straight into your bloodstream while you gaze at the sea.
At futuristic spas, you can get massages from robots, full-body 3D scans, and medical advice powered by artificial intelligence.
Wellness used to be about healing together. Now, it’s about upgrading alone.
When the cost of a week’s retreat equals a year’s salary, wellness stops being care and starts being capital.
It sells control and exclusivity.
What if wellness was never about feeling better, but looking like you are?