COVER STORY: INSIDE THE ROOM WHERE WELLNESS IS HEADED
Michaelis has watched the industry transform over her twenty years in it.“ In the beginning, we were kind of talking to ourselves. We would shout from the rooftops how smart it was to embrace a wellness lifestyle, and no one was listening. Now the public is coming to us.” She points to Oura Rings, iPhone health tracking, and the rise of wellness podcasts and influencers as evidence of just how far the shift has come.
That shift shows up clearly in the data too. Live Love Spa’ s inaugural Spa & Wellness Industry Trends Survey, gathered from spa leaders across North America, found longevity and healthy aging dominating the conversation heading into 2027, with 84 % of professionals naming it the industry’ s top growth trend, well ahead of runners-up like women’ s health, mental well-being, and sleep. When it comes to where consumers are actually spending, longevity services like diagnostics and preventative testing led at 76 %, and at home, red light therapy is the clear frontrunner in wellness tech at 71 %, outpacing sleep tech and wearables by a wide margin.
One trend Michaelis feels is still flying under the radar: financial wellness.“ It’ s really so important to overall stress reduction and well-being, but it’ s often the first thing overlooked,” she said.“ Sleep gets a lot of attention, but in the end, it boils down to the basics of wellness: exercise, eating right, healthy relationships, and destressing.”
She also pointed to a rising theme at this year’ s event: social wellness.“ We’ re seeing a clear rise in social wellness. It began during the pandemic, when people realized how essential community and in-person connection are.” Hotel brands like Hilton and Montage are now converting unused space into community wellness areas, and companies like Life Time, which has 150 locations nationwide, are hosting group education sessions that sell out the day they’ re
18 FlexzoneLifeMagazine. com