In recent years, wellness has expanded as a lifestyle trend around the world. The wellness economy is projected to rise from $5.6 trillion to $8.5 trillion by 2027, and guests are increasingly seeking new ways to relax and prioritise their health and wellbeing.
Consumer interest is growing in the areas of exercise, healthy eating, self-care and mindfulness, as well as other expressions of wellness, like technology-driven or immersive experiences, making now the time for operators across the attractions and leisure sectors to invest and innovate.
Immersive wellness concepts
Immersive wellness experiences, or those merging wellbeing with entertainment or technology, are rapidly rising as a new remedy. Some of our recent top picks include the Submersive spa concept, art and sauna exhibitions by teamLab, and psychedelic breathwork sessions at Area15.
On Chromasonic Field, a new immersive wellness experience in LA’s Arts District, co-founding artist Johannes Girardoni said: “Chromasonic Refrequencing expands perception by making light audible and sound visible. Through this fusion of art and technology, we create environments that deepen sensory awareness, foster connection, and ground you in presence.”
In the Chromasonic Field environment, light and sound are used to promote states of relaxation, increased mindfulness, and a heightened sense of wellbeing. Sound frequencies are translated to light, and light frequencies to sound, achieved via proprietary, cutting-edge technology called Chromasonic Refrequencing. This is also combined with spatial design in the installation.
Recent neuroscientific studies conducted by Chromasonic have shown significant improvements in participants’ mood and reduced anxiety.
Chromasonic Refrequencing and “sauna trance”
Dreamachine, meanwhile, is a touring attraction that uses strobing light and an immersive soundscape to evoke vivid colors and patterns in the mind. This simulates a psychedelic experience without drugs and fosters deep introspection.
Japanese digital art collective teamLab has been merging art and wellness for some time. One offering is a spa and tea ceremony in the forest. Another, teamLab Reconnect, is an art and sauna exhibition where visitors can experience the works while alternating hot saunas and cold baths. Ultimately, they enter a neurological state called “sauna trance”.
A similar idea is from Meow Wolf co-founder Corvas Brinkerhoff, who’s also behind an immersive spa called Submersive for Austin, Texas. Due to open next year, the wellness space will feature immersive art, video projections, lasers and AI.
Submersive calls itself a new kind of bathhouse that “takes you beyond relaxation into elevated states of consciousness including awe, wonder, inspiration, transcendence, euphoria, and hyper-presence”.
Reinventing the art of bathing
The new concept is “reinventing the art of bathing” with spaces that “integrate immersive art, neuroscience and social bathing elements to deliver measurable and repeatable state changes”.
The idea came to Brinkerhoff while he was visiting a Japanese-style bathhouse in Santa Fe. “I started getting flooded with images of how immersive art and steam and saunas and cold plunges could be integrated [into a bathhouse],” he told the Fast Company.
And, a bit like Submersive and teamLab’s wellness offerings, the US and Canada’s Othership blends sauna, cold plunges, sound baths, socialising and immersive music for otherworldly experiences.
Experiences at Area15 in Las Vegas have included yoga with state-of-the-art sound and 360-degree projections, psychedelic breathwork experiences, and also Ecstatic Dance.
Another Vegas-based attraction for experiential entertainment, Electric Playhouse, has combined yoga, guided meditation and sound healing with its 360-degree immersive visuals. The venue also added healthy food options to its bar menu and introduced more non-alcoholic beverages.
Theme parks: yoga with Miss Piggy
Outside of their hotel offerings, theme parks seem to be lagging behind in the wellness space, despite seemingly having enough facilities and resources to take advantage. Healthy F&B experiences are one area where operators could entice health-conscious visitors. Or, they could provide yoga days, mindfulness sessions, or wellness festivals that promote anything from relaxation to rejuvenation.
Disney is one company providing a limited number of wellness experiences, like a 2026 yoga session with Miss Piggy in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland in California. It includes an instructor-led yoga class, as well as special photo opportunities and appearances by Disney characters. Showing demand for unique wellbeing concepts, the event has already sold out.
Meanwhile, at the Disney Springs shopping, dining and entertainment complex in Disney World, Florida, January is wellness month. After the resort’s Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, it provides experiences such as Cirque du Soleil fitness classes and free facials at L’Occitane en Provence and Mac Cosmetics.
Health and wellness at water parks
European companies Therme Group (now the world’s largest operator of wellness infrastructure) and its partner Thermengruppe Josef Wund are leaders in the world of water park wellbeing. Therme Group is currently planning a global expansion, building new destinations in locations including Manchester, Dubai and the US.
Similar to Therme’s existing facilities in Erding, Germany and Bucharest, Romania, the new Therme resorts will provide thermal bathing, spa treatments, mineral pools, saunas and wet rooms, as well as lush greenery, immersive art, and thrilling waterslides.
Robert Hanea, chairman and CEO of Therme Group, said: “By combining cutting-edge technology with our commitment to sustainability and holistic wellbeing, we are setting a new standard for how cities can integrate wellness into everyday life.”
The new Dubai site, for example, will be the world’s tallest wellness resort, Therme said. Highlights include botanical gardens suspended from the air, stacked terraces, and cascading pools where guests can enjoy restorative thermal and mineral waters.
Thermal bathing, immersive art at Therme resorts
“Elevated high above the concerns of everyday urban life, Therme Dubai is an oasis in the sky,” says Elizabeth Diller, founding partner of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the project
“It emerges from the lake of a revitalized Zabeel Park as a series of botanical islands stacked into a tower. Each island is a platform for thermal pools, decks, and verdant indoor and outdoor vegetation; each offers a distinctive atmosphere; and each is oriented toward the dramatic view of the Dubai skyline.
“Guests are immersed in unique environments – warm and cool, wet and dry, the intense heat of saunas and steam rooms and the ambient temperature of thermal pools and cool mineral pools. By day, the atmosphere is contemplative and relaxing. By night, the spaces come alive with music, artistic performances and events.”
A recent addition to Germany’s Therme Euskirchen wellness complex also merges nature and technology. The multi-sensory production is located in the new ‘Immersive Sky’ experience room. Guests enjoy a unique “forest bathing experience” via sound, scent, water, movement and imagery as they discover the story of the Lupuna tree, found in various parts of the Amazon rainforest.
Another experience at the Thermen & Badewelt Sinsheim spa complex in Germany focuses on breathing to reduce stress. ‘Breathing Planet’ in an innovative spa space dubbed ‘Immersive Horizon’ fuses immersive visuals and art, sounds created to calm and guide guests’ breathing, and natural scents for a multi-sensory experience.
It is described by Thermengruppe Josef Wund as a place where guests can slow down and enjoy “a deep sense of inner peace and balance”.
Mental wellbeing in museums
Research has found that visiting museums can improve mental wellbeing. So, with that in mind, arts and culture institutions are enhancing their offer with varying wellness-inspired programmes and activities.
Immersive wellness has its place in museums – inherently unique and captivating spaces – like yoga classes beneath the Natural History Museum’s blue whale skeleton or at the British Museum, surrounded by objects from the ancient world. Also, to celebrate the 2024 Summer Olympics, the Louvre museum in Paris put on dance, yoga and cardio sessions, as well as sneaker customisation workshops, talks with athletes, and more.
Dedicated zones such as Al Waha at the Museum of the Future in Dubai are an alternative choice. This sensory spa uses light, sound and therapeutic interactive treatments to reconnect visitors with their senses. Guests can also take part in yoga classes and sound healing sessions.
Beyond these types of experiences, the Holburne Museum in Bath runs the Pathways to Wellbeing programme, which promotes mental health and wellness through creativity using the museum’s collection and exhibitions. With four partner museums and galleries in Bath, the Holburne provides visitors with safe and supportive museum-based creative sessions.
Guests can do art activities, as well as develop new skills and exhibit their work at local heritage sites. The museums also host community events, including the Holburne’s ‘Creativity and Wellbeing’ coffee mornings.
Mindfulness, art and accessible tours
In Canterbury, England, the Beaney House of Art & Knowledge is a therapeutic museum that aims to improve visitors’ health and wellbeing. The Beaney has developed an award-winning health and wellbeing programme, which has included art-making sessions, tactile tours and object handling for visually impaired adults.
Beamish, an open-air museum in County Durham, England, boasts a health and wellbeing programme that has been praised by the Royal Society for Public Health. To develop it, Beamish works with various organisations, including Alzheimer’s Society and local NHS support groups. The museum’s current health and wellness offerings include walking groups and music sessions.
Amguedffa Cymru – Museum Wales is a charity and a family of seven national museums and one collections centre located across Wales. Its initiatives include a mindfulness route through National Museum Cardiff. It also offers dementia-friendly underground tours of the Big Pit National Coal Museum and a sketching group at St Fagans National Museum of History.
Earlier this year, the Swindon Wellbeing Festival – another UK project – took place in the town’s STEAM Museum. The two-day festival was designed to improve visitors’ overall wellbeing through sessions on breathwork and dance flow meditation, a sound bath workshop, and talks on stress relief.
There were also mini sessions on reflexology and Reiki, as well as stalls selling natural remedies, aromatherapy products, and more.
Innovative, personalised treatments
Innovative practices and technology-driven wellness treatments are a different option for operators in the attractions and leisure industry to consider, and on the rise are more personalised wellbeing experiences based on individual preferences.
At greenloop 2024, blooloop’s conference focusing on sustainability in visitor attractions, Red Sea Global’s senior director of wellness strategy, Lindsay Madden-Nadeau, revealed more about the potential use of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in the wellbeing business.
Madden-Nadeau leads the wellness strategy for The Red Sea and Amaala – regenerative tourism destinations that aim to set new standards in sustainable development and put Saudi Arabia on the global tourism map.
“I was speaking to someone a couple of weeks ago about the first prototypes for the robotic massage, which was incredibly interesting. It’s kind of replacing humans in a way,” she said.
She added, “At the Global Wellness Summit in November, the Chopra Foundation Institute showcased something for us called ‘Cyberhuman.ai’, which could be your biggest dream or your worst nightmare.”
According to the Chopra Foundation Institute, Cyberhuman.ai is a personalised AI platform with an AI-driven virtual wellness assistant. Via the website, Cyberhuman.ai is described as “where the future of exceptional healthcare is personalized to your unique genetic blueprint, bloodwork, and lifestyle”.
Robotic massage, Cyberhuman.ai
Madden-Nadeau said, “It basically takes all of your information and it calculates everything and tells you exactly what you should be doing. These programmes are really to support this heightened intelligence and access knowledge in a very convenient way for day-to-day living. I think this is going to continue to evolve and grow.”
She added, “We see a lot of health operators these days creating more comprehensive diagnostic assessments along with more traditional wellness experiences.” Some tests currently on offer are genetic, epigenetic, and body composition.
Speaking to blooloop about wellness and sustainability at Red Sea Global, Madden-Nadeau said: “We’re seeing things like photobiomodulation, which is like red light therapy, where people use it to recharge their mitochondria. Hyperbaric chambers are another thing we’re seeing more and more. All of these contribute to recovery through increased circulation and enhanced performance.”
At Amaala, for example, longevity clinic and wellness brand Clinique La Prairie is developing a health resort. Medical services provided by Clinique La Prairie will cover radiology, physiotherapy and aesthetics, as well as neuroscience and dentistry. Wellbeing services will also include a cryochamber, hyperbaric suites and IV infusion.
Embracing the wellness trend
Wellness experiences give guests the chance to prioritise their physical and mental health while enjoying new forms of entertainment. The wellness industry is also a huge opportunity for operators, and the attractions business should continue to embrace this burgeoning trend and respond to changing consumer expectations.
As Jasmin Jodry, an award-winning creative director and experience designer, wrote for blooloop: “This isn’t just a trend; it’s the future of experience design. Experiential commissioners, real estate developers, and wellness brands have a rare opportunity to pioneer new frontiers in healing and transformation – shaping a more connected, thriving society.”
