Exchange on wellness market and opportunities

Around the world, there is growing interest in changing the way we take care of ourselves – not just our bodies, but also our minds, spirit, society, and planet. There is a growing impetus for a paradigm shift, a switch from mere reactivity – trying to treat or fix our problems – to a proactive and holistic approach to addressing and prevent the root causes of our personal and societal ills. This is what the wellness movement is all about. However, despite growing popularity, wellness concepts have not yet reached mainstream recognition and acceptance. And ironically, as wellness practices are spreading, fundamentally preventable problems like obesity, poor nutrition, and other chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer are growing even more rapidly.
In the fields of economics and business, there is no clearly defined wellness industry, although there is an emerging sense that such an industry does exist and is growing rapidly.
To the right-hand side are proactive approaches to health and wellness – that is, things that enhance quality of life, improve health, and bring a person to increasingly optimum levels of well-being.
SRI estimates conservatively that the wellness industry cluster represents a market of nearly $2 trillion dollars globally. All of the wellness sectors have direct market interactions with the core spa industry, and they present high-potential opportunities for the spa industry to pursue new wellness-oriented business ventures, investments, and partnerships beyond the menu of products and services traditionally offered at spas.
In fact, SRI estimates that there are already about 289 million wellness consumers in the world’s 30 most industrialized and wealthiest countries.
To sum up, we can identify the following drivers of the growing wellness industry:
 Increasingly older, unhealthy people
 Failing medical systems
 Globalization and connection
Needless to say, wellness is associated to some the most important aspects on which a solid community should grow: quality of life, physical fitness, happiness, balance, relaxation, emotional balance.

Issues to debate:
Develop a harmonized understanding of wellness terminology and concepts in relation to the spa industry, to reduce consumer confusion.
Promote and support ongoing conversations on wellness in the spa industry (and with other wellness sectors) to keep abreast of a rapidly growing and changing wellness market.
Build a body of evidence-based consumer research that connects spa to wellness.
Facilitate and publicize evidence-based/scientific research on wellness approaches.
Support new industry research to raise awareness of and attract investment in wellness opportunities.
Connect with wellness-related public sector tourism and public health organizations to leverage their resources.
Cosmetics: European legislation, threats and opportunities
Other niche-markets linked to wellness: fashion, hair-stylism...

In practice, the project will promote a serious and formal discussion around the potential of the wellness market in terms of regulatory issues, EU legislation, job and entrepreneurial opportunities, exchange of best practices, recognition of diplomas and other qualifications.
Short English language courses in partner countries will allow students and youngsters to participate in a seminar in Italy, at Villa Paradiso, where they will work together on the aforementioned themes in order to draft conclusions and recommendations on the wellness market. Oppurtinites will arise for increasing language skills and knowledge of the European dimension. Teorema will host trainees and organize their stay and their visits in Italy, while we expect short visits in Spain and UK to acquire new knowledge and competences and to test their findings.
The project, in fact, will increase European prospect of students, their skills and competences in a solid but still promising market, and contribute to the European knowledge of their distinctive features (SWOT analysis)