Wellness travel is about engaging with the destination in a more active way, focusing on the approach to designing and promoting smart destinations. Reinforcing the analysis of wellness travel beyond relaxation and contemplation, Mabrian reveals how destinations can capitalize on this trend.
Analysing 6.7 million TripAdvisor reviews of in-destination activities from 2019 to 2023, Mabrian identified five key drivers of demand for active wellness: physical recreation (sports), gentle hiking (tours and walks) and water sports – all of which have been on an upward trend over the past four years – as well as traditional wellness and relaxation activities (spas, hot springs) and culinary experiences.
Mabrian presented the concept of active wellness at the 12th World Congress on Snow, Mountain and Wellness Tourism, which includes lifestyle-enhancing activities such as fitness, healthy eating, relaxation, pampering and therapeutic treatments.
According to Mabrian, travellers are changing their relationship with destinations as they expect to actively engage in activities that combine discovery and leisure, contributing to their pursuit of a balanced and healthier lifestyle. 
The wellness demand factors that show the strongest upward trend are gentle hiking (+5.1%), physical recreation (+4.7%) and culinary experiences (3.5%).
All of this represents an opportunity for destinations to create easy-to-use tourism products and ancillary services that resonate with today’s forward-thinking traveller; as well as to develop experiences and activities that combine the outdoors and its natural resources with global experiential hot trends, such as hiking and camping tours, cycling, kayaking and canoeing, running tours and even cooking classes.
In fact, as Mabrian analysis reflects, the wellness demand drivers showing the strongest increasing trend are soft hiking (+5.1%), physical recreation (+4,7%), and gastro experiences (3.5%).
All this represents an opportunity for destinations to create easily applicable tourism products and ancillary services that resonate with today’s proactive traveller, as well as to develop experiences and activities that combine the countryside and its natural resources with global experiential trends, such as hiking and camping, cycling, kayaking and canoeing, running tours and even cooking classes.
The European travel market is a good example of the power of the active wellness trend. Drivers have increased by 8.2% since 2019 and now account for 48% of European travellers’ motivations for choosing a destination.
The aftermath of the pandemic has prompted this change in habits, including travel and tourism, and this increase is particularly strong among experiences related to nature and the outdoors, as well as active lifestyles.
Carlos Cendra, partner and CMO of Mabrian, states: “The world is very important for Greece: “The traditional, passive tourist is evolving into an active traveller; from a contemplative visitor to an experiential participant in the dynamics of destinations. This is why we need to redefine the concept of the wellness traveller, expanding it to an active wellness traveller and, in this new light, outdoor activities and contact with nature must be at the core of our travel value proposition.”
About Mabrian
Mabrian Technologies (Mabrian) is a company specialized in providing travel intelligence services worldwide. Founded in 2013, Mabrian is part of The Data Appeal company since 2023.
They combine big data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques with a deep knowledge of the tourism sector, thanks to their team of consultants. The company offers a visual data dashboard that provides a holistic observatory related to everything that affects a tourist destination: air connectivity, hotels, holiday rentals, traveller sentiment and demand, spending, mobility, and sustainability. The analysis of over 30 global data sources allows Mabrian to identify and predict tourism dynamics.
Present in 40 countries, Mabrian provides services to tourist destinations at any level (countries, regions, cities), as well as companies in the hotel and transport sector, or tourism-related consultancies (marketing, promotion, strategy, investment, etc.) to help them make decisions based on updated data and the evolution of the context.
