The Global Wellness Institute’s (GWI) new report, Global Wellness Economy Monitor 2023, predicts the global wellness tourism market to surpass $1 trillion in 2024. Since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, the market has been the top growth leader among 11 wellness markets since clocking 36% annual growth between 2020 and 2022 to return to 90% of its market value in 2019.
Related: 7 Wellness Tourism Trends in 2023
GWI forecasts that the wellness tourism market will more than double from 2022 to 2027, with dramatic spending jumps from 2022 ($651 billion) to 2024 ($1 trillion) and 2027 (1.4 trillion). Over the next five years, its 16.6% annual growth rate will make it the second biggest future growth leader among all wellness sectors behind wellness real estate at 17.4%, per the report.
Wellness tourism is growing significantly faster than tourism overall. Wellness tourism’s 36% annual spending growth and 30% annual wellness trip growth from 2020 to 2022 is markedly higher than growth rates for overall tourism expenditures (28.4%) and trips (23.8%), according to GWI.
Wellness trips now account for 7.8% of all tourism trips and 18.7% of all tourism expenditures. Wellness travelers made 819.4 million international and domestic wellness trips in 2022, a major increase over 2020 and 2021. Among those 819 million annual wellness trips, international/inbound trips now account for 12% (95 million trips), while domestic wellness trips account for 88% (725 million trips). In North America, only 4% of wellness trips are inbound or international, while making up 50% in the Middle East-North Africa region.
International wellness tourists on average spent $1,764 per trip—41% more than the typical international tourist. The spending premium for domestic wellness tourists is even higher, at 175% more than the average domestic tourist (or $668 per trip).
The top 5 biggest national wellness tourism markets are the United States ($256 billion, 32%), Germany ($70.2 billion, 50%), France ($35.5 billion, 36%), Austria ($19.5 billion, 28%) and Switzerland ($17.7 billion, 37%), per the report. The United States accounts for 24% of all wellness trips and 39% of all wellness tourism expenditures.
The Middle East-North Africa region has been the highest-growing market with 61.5% annual growth from 2020 to 2022. Average expenditures per trip have also grown the fastest in the MENA region, reaching $1,354 per wellness trip.
