Health Update: Event report – Global Wellness Summit 2025 – What Experts Say

If the pandemic ignited the modern wellness boom, 2025 proves it’s still far from its peak, as the latest figures from the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) project the global wellness economy will reach US$9.8 trillion by 2029 (see p106). Its surge – and what comes next – framed discussions at the 19th Global Wellness Summit (GWS) hosted in Dubai, UAE. More than 500 leaders from 50 countries gathered at the recently opened Mandarin Oriental Downtown, Dubai, under the theme Longevity Through a Wellness Lens to make sense of an industry evolving faster than its language.

The three-day programme spanned the topics of longevity, healthcare, wellness, travel, hospitality, technology and real estate, alongside poolside hypnomeditation, desert dance excursions and a futuristic gala. Yet growth brings complexity: longevity is booming, but its relationship with wellness remains fluid. As George Gaitanos of Chenot Group noted: “Longevity, wellness, wellbeing – that language has become used extensively, but not necessarily correctly, since the pandemic.”

Different speakers took different stances – some rooted in wellness, others in longevity, many exploring the interplay between the two. What ultimately united them was a single premise: wellness must be the basis of longevity. GWS chair and CEO Susie Ellis emphasised: “We’re once again presented with both the opportunity and the responsibility to truly change the world for the better.”

Middle East momentum
The UAE – billed as having the fastest-growing wellness economy in MENA – was a fitting setting. GWI figures value it at US$40.8 billion (see www.spabusiness.com/gwi_uae_dec) and Dubai was recognised as a standout wellness hub. Lindsay Madden-Nadeau, Red Sea Global senior director of wellness, highlighted how the Emirates’ competitive spa landscape has catalysed a broader wellness culture. “Three years ago, Dubai wasn’t a wellness destination, but it certainly felt like a benchmark for luxury spas.”

Now, the UAE is attracting leading names in longevity from Clinique La Prairie to Dave Asprey’s Upgrade Labs. Asprey, a biohacking entrepreneur, revealed that he has plans to open his first longevity centre outside of the US in Dubai, marking the start of a global rollout (see www.spabusiness.com/asprey). 

Nearby Saudi Arabia is following suit, with 100-200 luxury spas projected by 2029 (30 per cent of which will launch at Red Sea projects). Bahrain, Qatar and Iraq are also showing a strong appetite for wellness, Madden-Nadeau said.

Developers in the region are responding to these evolving expectations and the wellness real estate market is taking off. Aldar Development is working on two major wellness communities in Dubai and Abu Dhabi (see www.spabusiness.com/aldar) and its CEO, Jonathan Emery, explained that successful projects require a holistic approach featuring walkable streets, green spaces, active infrastructure, nutrition-conscious retail and ongoing management. “One size does not fit all. Build authentically for the place, not by copying elsewhere,” he noted.

Wellness is also penetrating the private sector. Diego Carrete, chief wellness officer at First Abu Dhabi Bank (one of the first roles of its kind in global finance) is embedding lifestyle and longevity into corporate culture. Yet the UAE faces pressing health challenges. Nicole Sirotin, physician, longevity medicine expert and CEO of the Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi, highlighted high rates of early-onset cancer, heart disease and obesity, underscoring the need for preventive, evidence-based wellness. Government-backed initiatives, including the Institute for Healthier Living and the Emirati Genome Project, are creating standardised, data-driven frameworks for longevity care.

New longevity playbook
The spa and wellness industry is entering a new era. As Servotel president and 2025 GWS co-chair Ömer Isvan noted, the traditional spa model – “build a hotel, add a spa” – no longer delivers value in a world where guests arrive with their own routines, data and expectations. Today’s travellers want transformative, measurable outcomes, not feel-good add-ons.

That shift is already reshaping luxury hospitality. Sam Nazarian, founder of sbe and The Estate, described how the next generation of consumers “want better living, not indulgence” while in conversation with Nancy Davis, GWS chief creative officer and executive director. His integrated model – hospitality, residential living and clinical-grade longevity services – offers guests real-time insights into their health, lifestyle and environment. For operators, this signals a fundamental reframing: the role is no longer to provide treatments, but to enable personalised, high-frequency wellness journeys that continue long after checkout.

Science increasingly supports this integration, according to summit co-chair and Cleveland Clinic chief wellness officer Dr Mike Roizen. He explained that wellness lays the foundation for longevity: stress management, nutrition, sleep, exercise and preventive care control up to 98 per cent of our gene expression. Emerging interventions – senolytics, epigenetic reprogramming, therapeutic plasma exchange – show promise in reversing aspects of cellular ageing. “Wellness and longevity are inseparable: you must maintain health and youthful habits to enable these interventions to work,” he said.

European medical wellness specialists Elke Benedetto-Reisch of Lanserhof Tegernsee, Chenot’s Gaitanos and Simone Gibertoni from Clinique La Prairie focused on functionality. “Ageing is inevitable, but functional decline is not,” said Gibertoni. Their clinics combine diagnostics, nutrition, movement, mental wellbeing and ongoing follow-up, creating ecosystems where longevity isn’t just for short visits. Benedetto-Reisch stressed that follow-up is crucial for encouraging long-term lifestyle change: “Longevity needs a different approach. We’ll have 1.5 billion people over 60 in the next 15 years. Continuing to treat disease as we do now is unsustainable.” For all three, behaviour change, habit consistency and human connection are central. 

Evidence equals currency 
With wellness washing creeping in as longevity gains momentum, evidence is becoming the new currency of credibility. The summit highlighted how scientifically grounded interventions can make wellness more accessible, scalable and trustworthy.

Freddie Moross, founder of health and wellness music brand Myndstream, together with Mayo Clinic integrative oncologist Dr Dawn Mussallem, unveiled a joint research initiative investigating music’s clinical potential. They aim to build evidence for using music as a widely accessible therapeutic tool in both healthcare and wellness.

Meanwhile, Dr Deepak Srivastava, president and senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes, spoke about his work in pioneering disease prevention and cellular therapies. Harnessing the Three Rs – read the genome, reprogramme cells, rewrite DNA – alongside AI and gene editing approaches, his team is turning preventive science into practice. “Curing or preventing disease is the most direct path to healthspan,” he said. “Genetic destiny is no longer immutable.”

Wearable data is also becoming a bridge between wellness and measurable outcomes. Kristen Holmes, Whoop’s global head of performance, explained how the brand is now combining continuous biometrics with blood biomarkers to create a “health operating system” that enables personalised, scientifically validated interventions. These types of new tools will enable operators to design programmes with demonstrable results.

Across these examples, the message was clear: measurement, validation and actionable data now define the difference between meaningful interventions and superficial claims.

Wellness-driven hospitality
Philippe Zuber, CEO of Kerzner International, spoke about wellness being the core of modern hospitality. Overseeing 17,000 employees across brands such as SIRO, One&Only, Atlantis Resorts and Rare Finds, Zuber highlighted how integrating evidence-based wellness can differentiate a brand while delivering scalable business value.

Kerzner was an early mover in embracing medical and holistic wellness, launching One&Only Portonovi in Montenegro with a 4,000sq m Chenot spa in 2020. More recently, it revealed one of the first Clinique La Prairie hubs at One&Only Za’abeel in Dubai, which sits adjacent to SIRO, Kerzner’s innovative fitness and recovery hotel (see www.spabusiness.com/siro).

Zuber stressed credibility over buzzwords: “We’ve been cautious to move away from scientific hype because it doesn’t resonate with the audience.” Guests now treat wellness as an asset and are willing to leave a pre-paid massage after just 10 minutes if they don’t feel the benefits, he said.

While Zuber revealed that wellness only accounts for 4 per cent of hotel revenue, he said SIRO’s model ensures every square metre generates a return. During an interview with summit co-chair Jeremy Jauncey, Beautiful Destinations founder and CEO, he announced plans to focus on family wellness. Atlantis The Palm and Atlantis The Royal are already piloting programmes teaching wellbeing and emotional resilience from childhood. “The earlier they start, the better they will be,” Zuber said, underscoring that wellness can be both a competitive edge and a long-term investment in guest loyalty.

Accessible Wellness
While luxury wellness defines one end of the spectrum, making wellness accessible to more people and scalable was another major focus at the summit. Robert Hanea, CEO of the Therme Group, revealed how the group’s sprawling 76,000sq m facility in Bucharest attracts 1.7 million visitors each year – nearly 10 per cent of Romania’s population. Cost is key and standard day passes start at LEI97 (US$22, €19, £17).

Therme is showing how wellness can reach a broad audience and is planning multiple sites in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and North America (see www.spabusiness.com/thermegroup). Hanea wants the facilities to become a part of people’s weekly routines. “They’re not a place where you go just two weeks a year; it needs to be in your daily life,” he said, adding that the group is aiming to reach 25–30 million visitors by 2030.

Mary Leary, president and CEO of Mather, echoed Hanea’s accessibility focus, highlighting the over-50s as an overlooked market. Many people commented on how her focus on this untapped market was a real eye-opener. “Older adults are thirsty for information related to health, spa and longevity,” she said, pointing to both curiosity and latent spending power. Mather addresses social isolation with the life plan communities it operates in Virginia, Illinois and Arizona. It also oversees an independent living community on Chicago’s North Shore.

Lessons in hospitality
The summit highlighted a simple truth: luxury alone no longer guarantees loyalty. Neil Jacobs, former CEO of Six Senses and founder of consultancy Wild Origins, argued that the industry has “priced itself into a corner” and grown increasingly homogeneous. Speaking with Six Senses wellness pioneer and summit co-chair Anna Bjurstam, Jacobs stressed that innovation and storytelling are the keys to standing out. “The minute you try to make everybody happy… is when you dilute your story,” he said. “Be brave and stand firm in who you are. Then you have a real chance of changing the game.”

Bjurstam questioned Jacobs on the rise of AI in hospitality, noting its ability to handle 80 per cent of guest inquiries and boost upsell revenue by 250 per cent. He believes technology can improve efficiency, but it will never replace human connection: “Money and good taste can create a beautiful building, but it’s not the building that makes someone feel cared for. That’s the key to hospitality.”

Meng-Mei Chen, from Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne and author of Hospitality Vibes, reflected on the importance of remaining human-centric. Environments, programmes and experiences designed to foster social interaction and human connection can improve customer and employee satisfaction, she said.

A case for spirituality 
While science and technology are accelerating longevity, Bjurstam reminded delegates not to ignore spirituality as an essential pillar in holistic longevity. “I love science, but somewhere along the line we stopped using it and started worshipping it,” she said. Bjurstam defines spirituality as a search for meaning, connection to the divine, a sense of belonging or inner reflection. She highlighted evidence shows that spiritual practice is strongly linked to better health outcomes, including 33 per cent lower mortality, 82 per cent lower rates of depression, a 94 per cent reduction in suicide risk and a 60 per cent boost in immunity.

She stressed that operators should treat spirituality not as an optional add-on, but as core infrastructure for wellbeing. Six Senses plans to integrate this approach in its new members club, launching in London next year, followed by other sites in Tel Aviv, Dubai, New York and Lisbon.

Bjurstam’s talk reminded delegates that wellness in all its facets is about more than the body. That belief was also at the heart of one of the summit’s most inspiring talks, delivered by Richard Carmona, 17th US Surgeon General. He asserted that “wellness is not a luxury. It is a human right.” Carmona challenged the industry to match scientific progress with human empathy, cautioning that “while science races forward, humanity often is left behind… we are growing older and smarter, but not always wiser or kinder.” His words were a powerful call to action, a reminder that the work ahead is about building credible wellness that truly serves people, communities and society.