Over 400 million business trips are made every year. Business travel used to be available only for executives and directors. But today, it has become more common across all levels. While the idea of traveling for work can be appealing, it can also take its toll on our health. 

Long flights, disrupted sleep patterns, and a lack of access to healthy food and exercise options during business trips can leave us feeling drained. Business travelers are prone to suffering from stress and this can affect factors in their lives such as their finances, productivity, and even their relationships.

This problem gives emerging markets a chance to help meet the need for better health and well-being. Wellness tourism helps people who are actively looking for ways to improve their health and well-being while traveling. Here's what the industry can explore to help business travelers incorporate health and wellness into their trips.

Providing a relaxing and wellness-focused hotel experience can help individuals achieve their health goals. According to research by the Wellness Tourism Association (WTA), 17% of those looking for hotels are health-conscious, and therefore prefer hotels that provide education on health topics and demonstrate how they prioritize it. Hotels can provide in-room fitness equipment, spas, pools, and a range of other options for their guests.

The elevated understanding of valuing health brings new meaning to being fit for travel. This is where wellness travel companies come into the picture. They offer travel packages that focus on health and wellness, such as hiking trips or yoga retreats. This helps travelers prioritize their health and explore new destinations.

Give travelers more healthy food options. Due to busy schedules, business travelers might opt to have food delivered to their rooms or conference centers. Healthy food delivery services provide business travelers with nutritious food without the hassle of going to a restaurant or wasting time searching online.

Business travelers can now stay on track with their fitness goals. With the help of a fitness app downloaded onto their phones, they can work out at their own convenience, even in their hotel rooms. Fitness apps like FitOn and Gymshark have a large library of workouts and plans that users can follow on-demand. Meanwhile, the Nike Training Club app allows its users to experience what it feels like to have a personal trainor.

Prioritizing mental health is as important as physical health. Business travelers can now manage stress and anxiety while on the go through the different mental health apps available. Some apps offer guided meditations, while others offer breathing exercises.

For business travelers who want to level up their workout experience even while on a trip, portable fitness equipment is the answer. The wellness tourism industry can invest in simple pieces of portable exercise equipment to help business travelers. Resistance bands, stability balls, and jump ropes can easily be packed in a suitcase. Hotels can also add these to their line of equipment.

Due to their busy schedules, business travelers often say they don't get enough sleep. Fortunately, several sleep aids in the market are now available. Products like sleep masks, earplugs, white noise machines, and aromatherapy diffusers can help create a relaxing sleep environment, even in a noisy hotel room.

Business travel can affect our health in various ways, including having depression and anxiety, being inactive, or resorting to smoking or alcohol dependence. But the good news is that we can help business travelers avoid all this through our wellness tourism offerings.

Learn more about how the industry can help by joining the Int’l Wellness Tourism Expo (iWT). This is the first and only wellness tourism event in Japan. Explore different tourism contents and collaborate with various suppliers from Japan and all over the world in one event.

Join us on May 10-12, 2023 at Tokyo Big Sight, Japan!