The market shift in detail

The Global Wellness Institute forecasts wellness tourism to surpass 1.3 trillion dollars in 2025, making it one of the fastest growing categories in the entire travel sector. Within this, lodging and destination retreats are leading. Bank of America estimates the longevity economy will hit 610 billion dollars this year, spanning clinics, advanced diagnostics and health centric retreats.

By contrast, Bain and McKinsey both report that personal luxury goods are flattening in 2025 after two years of high post pandemic recovery. Growth is muted in Europe and slowing in China, where consumers are cautious on discretionary spending. For luxury groups, wellness and hospitality are the growth engines filling that gap.

This shift is also cultural. Vogue Business notes that experiences and wellness carry symbolic weight. They are visible on social media, they create narratives, and they deliver transformations that products alone cannot. Time, health and access to unique places now rank higher than the latest seasonal bag.

Who is rewriting luxury

Luxury hotel groups are setting the pace. Marriott’s Luxury Wellbeing Series, launching across Asia Pacific in August 2025, integrates sleep, nutrition and mindfulness into its Ritz Carlton, St Regis and Mandapa properties. Six Senses is expanding rapidly with wellness driven resorts where diagnostics and personalised health planning sit alongside hospitality design.

Medical wellness is a defining subcategory. Lanserhof has created a benchmark with locations in Austria, Germany and the UK that combine clinical diagnostics, fasting programmes and therapies with spa level comfort. Guests return year after year, not for leisure but for measurable health results.

Hospitality groups are also reframing wellness as community. Rosewood’s Asaya has become a brand within the brand, offering spa, movement, nutrition and emotional health across properties from Hong Kong to Phuket. This consistency allows Rosewood to build a wellness identity recognisable across markets.

Fashion and luxury conglomerates are entering with their own spin. Dior has extended its spa services into resorts such as the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, turning couture credibility into experiential wellbeing. LVMH’s Belmond curates multi day journeys on rail and river, layering culture and place into immersive experiences. Even wellness start ups are partnering with established houses, bringing in biohacking, AI supported sleep diagnostics and performance therapies for business travellers.

These examples show a common move: the object is not the handbag or the spa treatment. The object is the transformation. What matters is the shift in health metrics, the feeling of belonging to a circle or the story to share.

What operators can learn

For operators in hospitality, health or creative culture, there are clear lessons.

• Scarcity alone is no longer enough. A bag or a watch can be bought or resold. An authentic transformation or ritual cannot.

• Memberships are the future store. Ongoing wellness programmes, cultural passes or community memberships hold attention for months and generate recurring revenue.

• Longevity is becoming a service. Premium clinics and resorts can package diagnostics, nutrition, recovery and education into structured journeys that feel credible and aspirational.

• Design nature into the experience. From biophilic architecture to outdoor rituals, integrating natural settings adds measurable wellbeing impact and cultural weight.

• Cross sector collaborations create value. Fashion labels with hospitality, clinics with resorts, wellness with culture. These combinations expand reach and position brands as lifestyle ecosystems.
  
  

Closing

Luxury in 2025 is not about what you own but how you live. The slowing of goods sales and the rise of wellness travel and experiential programmes marks a clear turn. Brands that design credible memberships, retreats and wellness centred journeys will not only capture growth but also cultural relevance. Those who remain tied only to seasonal products risk being left behind by a generation that invests less in objects and more in experiences that renew, connect and transform.

Photos:
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