The Global Wellness Institute released a new forecast to tie in with World Bathing Day – revealing the top five trends in hot springs worldwide.
Identified by the GWI’s Hot Springs Initiative, the 2019 trends were:
A destination for all
Hot springs are now multigenerational and being designed with infants and seniors in mind. Experiences range from baby baths and walk-in pools to water slides.
Connecting communities
Hot springs are looking back to their communal public bathing history and engaging with the broader community by providing for health, wellbeing and connection.
Weaving in wellness
Increasingly, activities such as massage, yoga, Pilates and forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku) are being included into hot springs offerings, stretching their traditional appeal to a more proactive wellness-motivated consumer.
Extreme bathing
Natural hot springs are increasingly playing host to extreme wellness retreats and adventures, pushing guests to extremes in order to stimulate the immune system and the body’s self-healing mechanisms.
Natural connections
Evidence-based research is increasingly showing the connection between nature and mental and spiritual health. Hot springs designs are now focusing on providing an aesthetic and physical connection to the environment and, with that, a sense of being connected to and at one with the natural environment.
Charles Davidson, chair of the GWI Hot Springs Initiative, says: ‘It’s crucial to remember that every generation benefits from hot springs — and worth noting that all five of the original Blue Zone Communities, places in the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives, feature hot springs in the community or very close by.’
https://globalwellnessinstitute.org/initiatives/hot-springs-initiative/
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