Luxury and Wellness: Top Priorities for 2025 Events

Meeting planners and suppliers seek to blend high-end experiences with health-conscious offerings.

Two prevailing trends are poised to reshape meetings and events:

Consumers value exclusive personal and memorable experiences over luxury goods; and Personal health and wellness are vitally important — even more so than work.

These factors reflect a significant and steady shift in how people want to live. A recent study by Deloitte found that 84 percent of employees consider improving their well-being a top priority, and 74 percent said it’s more important than advancing their careers. Work is the biggest obstacle to achieving wellness goals. Respondents cited stressful jobs, long hours and heavy workloads as barriers to their physical and mental well-being.

The meetings industry's response

Meeting planners can't make people’s jobs easier, but they can improve the typical event experience. Rather than plowing through a grueling agenda fueled by sugar and alcohol, participants want an experience that fulfills their business and personal needs. They want to go home informed and refreshed, not burned out and hung over.

How can meeting planners and suppliers respond? Northstar Meetings Group’s newest hosted-buyer event, Luxury & Wellness Meetings, held Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 at VEA Newport Beach in California, was conceived to explore and educate stakeholders on these complementary trends, and to connect buyers and suppliers who together can deliver high-end, exclusive experiences in an environment that supports wellness goals.

On the heels of that successful, sold-out show, Northstar has announced plans for two more Luxury & Wellness hosted-buyer events in 2025: Luxury & Wellness Meetings – Winter, Feb. 19-21 at the West Hollywood Edition in West Hollywood, Calif.; and Luxury & Wellness Meetings – Summer, July 28-30 at Opal Sol in Clearwater Beach, Fla. (If those date's don't work, Northstar has plenty of other events to choose from.)

The booming luxury travel industry

The fast-growing luxury hospitality market is responding. Luxury travel spending is expected to double over the next six years, reaching a projected annual revenue of nearly $2.3 trillion globally by 2030, said a study from Grand View Research.

Affluent consumers are driving that growth by prioritizing experiences and travel over luxury goods. Global wealth is expected to increase 38 percent by 2027, reaching $629 trillion, according to UBS.

More high-end properties are pricing their product accordingly. Research by CoStar shows a dramatic rise in the number of global hotels with room rates exceeding $1,000 per night. In the first half of this year, 460 hotels commanded four-figure rates, up from 150 in the first half of 2019.

Delivering exceptional experiences

Given these conditions, luxury tourism demand is expected to grow faster than other travel segments, said Jaime Moench, vice president of luxury sales and distribution for Marriott International, a featured speaker at the recent Luxury & Wellness Meetings event.

Discerning travelers want experiences that are distinctive, personalized and exclusive, especially among millennials and Gen Z, said Moench. “Luxury consumers are seeking things that are uncommon and really hard to find,” she added. “That’s challenging but crucial for delivering exceptional guest service.”

Clienteling: The key to long-term relationships

The most effective driver of engagement, Moench said, is anticipating guests’ needs. To that end, Marriott has embraced the concept of “clienteling,” which borrows lessons from successful luxury retail brands that excel at building and nurturing long-term relationships with top customers through personalized interactions and experiences.

“With the clienteling approach, you're really moving beyond the transactional part and the functional part, and creating a deep and lasting relationship with your clients," she explained. The strategy relies on customer relationship management (CRM) software, detailed customer profiles, analytics, a client-first mindset, proactive engagement efforts and exclusive customer events.

Wellness as a natural extension of luxury

Upper-tier hospitality brands are increasingly incorporating wellness into their luxury offerings. Properties are seeking to offer an oasis for the mind and body, with an emphasis on healthful food and beverage, movement, and nature.

Many have expanded menus with local ingredients that cater to various diets, including plant-based and gluten-free. And, with 38 percent of adults abstaining from alcohol, many are adding zero-proof beverages to the bar.

As the industry continues to adapt, sources suggest, the fusion of luxury and wellness likely will become a standard expectation rather than an exception in high-end event planning.

Source: Northstarmeetingsgroup.com