3 exciting new wellness trends that could transform our lives

Energy medicine, wellness music, and circadian health are the most exciting trends in the US$4.5 trillion wellness industry right now, one expert says

A focus on ageing and how tech is being used to track and catalogue our health and habits also stood out in the recent Global Wellness Trends Report

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The wellness market is a US$4.5 trillion industry worldwide and growing by the day, especially in Asia. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:00pm, 15 Feb 2020Updated: 2:01pm, 26 May 2020

To say that health is on everyone’s minds lately is a huge understatement. Just look at the long queues to get face masks – or even more dire, toilet paper. But it is worth remembering that we humans were a health-obsessed species even before the threat of a coronavirus pandemic reared its head. The wellness market is a US$4.5 trillion industry worldwide and booming.

The annual Global Wellness Summit (GWS) brings together movers and shakers in the industry to discuss all the things shaping the market today. From its modest beginning as a gathering of wellness entrepreneurs and spa owners in New York City in 2007, it has grown into the world’s largest wellness conference, inviting more than 600 researchers, CEOs, entrepreneurs, doctors and academics to present their research every year.

Last year’s summit was supposed to take place in October in Hong Kong but t he protest situation there triggered the event’s last-minute move to Singapore.

Each year the summit issues its Global Wellness Trends Report. This year’s has just been released, laying out 10 trends which are likely to define the wellness market for 2020.

Wellness practitioners define the industry as an alternative to traditional medicine that focuses on prevention more than treatment. Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto

While the summit travels to a different city every year – next year it is in Tel Aviv – the timing could not be better for a stop in Asia.

“The US might dominate so much of the wellness market, but Asia is the fastest growing wellness market in the world,” says Beth McGroarty, director of research and PR at the Global Wellness Institute, who puts together and oversees the trend report. “Asia is the growth leader. It is just exploding.”

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