By Shereen Shabnam

As a travel writer for over two decades, I have pretty much done all types of travel and while some holidays left me with photographs, a tan, a suitcase full of shopping, a few extra kilograms from particularly enthusiastic dining, others become journeys that genuinely changed how I felt.

One of the most memorable wellness trips I have taken was a week at Siddhalepa Ayurveda Health Resort in Sri Lanka. I went there expecting relaxation, but the experience became something much more profound. My days revolved around Ayurvedic treatments, carefully considered food, rest and a completely different rhythm of living. For once, wellbeing wasn’t something squeezed between appointments. It was the purpose of the journey. I returned home genuinely rejuvenated.

Having also had briefings over the years with internationally renowned wellness brands such as Clinique La Prairie and Chiva-Som, I have increasingly found myself attracted to the idea of choosing a holiday not simply to where I want to go, but to how I want to feel when I return.

That, I believe, represents one of the Middle East’s most exciting tourism opportunities. The interest in medical and wellness tourism alone should make governments, investors and hospitality groups pay attention.

The global wellness economy reached $6.8 trillion in 2024 and is projected to approach $9.8 trillion by 2029. The Middle East and North Africa, has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing wellness regions. But the opportunity across the region extends far beyond adding another spa to a five-star resort.

What if wellness itself became a reason to travel to the Middle East? The region already has many of the ingredients required to become a major medical tourism destination. The UAE and other Gulf markets have invested heavily in hospitals, specialist clinics, advanced diagnostics and international medical expertise. Traditionally, medical tourism has been associated with travelling because something is wrong. The greater future opportunity may be convincing people to travel because they want to prevent something from becoming wrong.

Imagine destinations built around comprehensive health assessments, preventative medicine, sleep, nutrition, metabolic health, physical rehabilitation, stress management, longevity and personalised programmes. A visitor might arrive for seven or fourteen days and undergo sophisticated diagnostic testing before receiving a personalised programme encompassing nutrition, movement, treatments, recovery and medical consultation.

The holiday becomes an investment in future health. For affluent travellers increasingly interested in longevity and quality of life, that is an attractive proposition. What makes wellness tourism particularly interesting from an economic perspective is that the expenditure does not remain within the clinic or resort.

A wellness visitor needs accommodation. They require airport transfers and local transportation. They eat in restaurants. Their accompanying partner or family may shop, visit cultural attractions, play golf or book additional experiences. They purchase skincare, supplements, wellness products, clothing and gifts. A strong wellness tourism sector therefore creates revenue across hotels, airlines, private aviation, restaurants, retail, transport, healthcare, beauty, fitness and entertainment. And these can be relatively high-value visitors.

We need to think beyond the massage table. The spa industry will naturally remain central to wellness tourism, but even here there is room to think much bigger. A spa shouldn’t simply generate revenue from treatments. It can become a retail environment. Guests who discover an oil, fragrance, herbal infusion, skincare formulation or wellness ritual during a treatment often want to continue that experience when they return home. This creates enormous potential for locally developed spa products.

The Middle East already has extraordinary ingredients and traditions to draw upon: dates, honey, rose, saffron, camel milk, black seed, frankincense and other botanicals and ingredients with deep cultural associations. There is an opportunity to create sophisticated wellness products that tell a distinctly regional story.

Rediscovering traditional knowledge is perhaps the area that interests me most. My experience in Sri Lanka demonstrated how powerful Ayurveda can be when it isn’t treated as an exotic add-on to a conventional spa menu, but approached as an entire philosophy of wellbeing.

The Middle East has its own extraordinary traditions. Growing up as a Muslim, we learnt that Arabic and Islamic medicine have centuries of history encompassing nutrition, herbal remedies, hygiene, preventative approaches and the relationship between physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. There is enormous potential to explore this heritage responsibly.

I would love to see serious wellness centres bringing together qualified practitioners, historians, medical professionals and researchers to examine how appropriate elements of traditional Arabic and Islamic wellness practices can complement modern approaches.

A destination that successfully combines advanced modern diagnostics with carefully researched regional wellness traditions could offer something genuinely distinctive on the global stage focussed on preventative health, heritage and holistic wellbeing.

The success of destinations such as Chiva-Som demonstrates that travellers will cross borders specifically for wellbeing. Clinique La Prairie similarly illustrates the appeal of combining luxury hospitality with health, longevity and highly personalised programmes. What I find interesting about both propositions is that the destination becomes almost secondary. That is an extraordinarily powerful tourism proposition.

The Middle East  is perfectly positioned to develop this sector. We already have excellent aviation connectivity, luxury hotels, ambitious hospitality investors, internationally recognised healthcare facilities, warm winter climates and a culture where hospitality is deeply embedded. The Gulf is also geographically positioned between Europe, Asia and Africa, placing enormous populations within relatively easy flying distance.

Saudi Arabia’s rapidly developing tourism landscape creates further opportunities to integrate wellness into entirely new destinations from the beginning rather than retrofitting it later. Oman has spectacular mountains, wadis, coastline and desert landscapes perfectly suited to restorative retreats. Jordan has the therapeutic associations of the Dead Sea. Egypt has the Red Sea, desert environments and a civilisation with one of the world’s richest histories of medicine and wellbeing. Morocco has hammam culture and its extraordinary traditions around beauty, oils and botanicals. And the UAE has the infrastructure, connectivity and luxury hospitality expertise to become an international hub connecting many of these ideas.

Rather than attempting to replicate Switzerland, Thailand or Sri Lanka, the opportunity is to create a Middle Eastern interpretation of wellness tourism. Perhaps the biggest shift required is philosophical.

Healthcare traditionally concentrates enormous resources on treating people once they become ill. Wellness concentrates on what happens before that point. People increasingly want to understand their bodies earlier. They want better nutrition, better sleep, greater mobility, lower stress and longer healthy lives.

There can be different levels of wellness tourism, from elite longevity clinics and luxury retreats to affordable preventative-health programmes, women’s wellness escapes, corporate burnout retreats, fitness holidays and culturally rooted spa experiences.

Perhaps the reason wellness tourism resonates with me is very simple. We often return from holidays needing another holiday. We rush between sightseeing, dinners, meetings, shopping and experiences because we feel compelled to make the most of every moment. Wellness travel turns that philosophy around. Perhaps the next frontier is to create places people travel to because they want to return home healthier than when they arrived.

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