Lindsay Madden-Nadeau, senior director of wellness strategy at Red Sea Global, has 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.
At greenloop 2024, blooloop’s conference focusing on sustainability in visitor attractions, Madden-Nadeau said: “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 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”.
Madden-Nadeau explained, “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.”
AI-driven virtual wellness assistants
During greenloop, she also spoke about some of the other trends in wellness tourism to watch, noting that technology is playing a significant role. Wearable devices are being used by people who want to monitor their sleep levels and physical activity, for example.
“We see a lot of health operators these days creating more comprehensive diagnostic assessments along with more traditional wellness experiences,” she added. Some tests currently on offer are genetic, epigenetic, and body composition.
Other operators are merging wellness and art. “We’re also seeing companies hosting wellness retreats that blend yoga, meditative meditation and artistic workshops”, she said.
“The last trend I think is worth mentioning is mental health, but specifically in men. There’s an increase in demand for wellness travel and men. I would say it’s probably very generationally-led because you have different generations, probably starting from the Millennials and Gen Z, where wellness has been brought up as part of their DNA. It’s something that they’ve been exposed to. There’s a strong emphasis in Gen Z on emotional health and the importance of community and social connections.
“I think on average, we’re seeing about a five to 10 percent increase per year for wellness travel and men, which I think is fantastic. It shows that there are different demographics embracing wellness around the world.”
greenloop 2024 sessions are on demand for 30 days for ticket holders. Anyone else can contact events@blooloop.com.
Images courtesy of Red Sea Global and Chopra Foundation Institute
