Celebrate the 5th World Wellness Weekend

Join 1,500 venues in 131 countries (950 cities), and together, let’s inspire millions to switch to a healthy lifestyle and strengthen immune systems.

World Wellness Weekend (WWW) started as a yearly event just before the September Equinox and has become a movement encouraging people to practice wellness activities as often as possible around the year. The Wellness Map (with a geolocator in 16 languages) is promoting Wellness Weekends year round, and not just the one WWW on September 18-19, 2021.

Jean-Guy De Gabriac, Founder, World Wellness Weekend, launched WWW in March 2017 with 160 venues participating in France and Belgium on September 2017. This then rapidly grew to 650 venues in 88 countries in 2018, and 2,350 venues in 98 countries in 2019. And this year, there are over 131 countries (950 cities) and 1,500 venues. Jean-Guy De Gabriac shares more on the focus on WWW and importance of practicing wellness activities.

What are WWW’s five pillars of wellness?

The five Pillars are: Restorative sleep improving your attention, participation, memory, and creativity; Fresh, seasonal and colourful nutrition to improve your gut’s health, strengthen your immune system, help you reach and keep your ideal weight; movement to remain active, mobile, flexible, fit, independent and socially-engaged with enthusiastic projects as long as possible with joyful and contagious vitality; mindfulness to preserve or restore your mental health, enhance serenity, resiliency, grit, empathy and compassion; and sense of purpose, which adds an elevated dimension to one’s life with meaning, and fosters solidarity that the world needs more of. These five pillars are meant to be accessible to all, not only to encourage self-care, but also benefit those around each of us through contagious enthusiasm and regular social interactions to break a feeling of isolation.

Since the pandemic, do you think that wellness is now being aligned together with the health category? Is this a good thing or should wellness remain a category by itself?

The government and media are totally focused on COVID-19, but actually we have more than one pandemic to address. Five pandemics have been going on for decades: sleep, obesity, inactivity, anxiety, and NCDs. Sixty-two-per-cent of adults worldwide feel that they do not sleep well. Thirty-percent of the population is affected with insomnia and 1 billion people worldwide suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, which may speed up the onset of cognitive impairment, memory loss, and even Alzheimer’s disease.

Overweight and obesity kill more people than underweight: 39 per cent adults aged over 18 years were overweight in 2016 (1.9 Bn) and 13 per cent were obese (650 M).

Sitting is more dangerous than smoking and kills more people than HIV. Twenty-five-per-cent of adults and over 80 per cent of adolescents are not active enough. Between 2013 and 2018, Europeans who do not practice any physical activity or sport increased from 42 per cent to 46 per cent. In the US, 75 per cent of doctor visits are related to stress. And, 13 million workdays in Europe are lost yearly due to stress complaints. This plus chronic diseases (heart, stroke, cancer, diabetes, respiratory…) have killed prematurely 15 million people each year.

And, all these pandemics are preventable with better lifestyle choices. Thierry Malleret, Economist said that “Wellness is the net winner in this COVID environment.”

We all witnessed how the ‘healthcare’ system is actually the ‘sick care’ system, managing diseases. More than ever, we all need to have a responsible long-term approach to our vitality, serenity and immunity through better lifestyles and with the support of friends, colleagues, and family. We should be accountable to each other through social prescribing.

We should all choose a wellness buddy and strive to keep each other’s in check. It is human to set goals, and sometimes fall short, or stop trying. That is when the Wellness Buddy is essential to remind us why we started on the path to joyful and vibrant health.

What is the main purpose of the WWW event?

In alignment with the UN’s third Sustainable Development Goal, ‘Good health and well-being for all’, and the support of over 40 officials in governments, city halls, and tourism boards, WWW is encouraging wellness professionals and enthusiasts to take a stand and show that their health matters, their vitality and serenity. When thousands of professionals open their doors on the same weekend, just before the September Equinox (September 18-19), it creates a planetary PR event that catches the attention of journalists, influencers, bloggers, who then share with their audience original wellness activities to be experienced across countries and cities. The fear of getting sick may trigger a visit to the doctor, may entice the start of a diet, but will not sustain prolonged lifestyle changes. The fact that activities are ‘free’ may only attract ‘bounty hunters’.

For the past four years, we have shared innovative best practices that inspire and empower professionals to offer a minimum of one hour of one member of the team to lead a workshop, a class or talk that is safe, free, fun and as transformative as possible. We want participants to learn something new, experience something wow, so that they share it with their best friends to incite them to try. We also encourage participating venues to create attractive offers and packages for people to stay longer on property during the WWW and bounce-back offers to incite people to come back in October, November and December. In a way, people should understand that they are three steps away from wellness: the first one is booking in advance to enjoy and experience the wellness activity on property during WWW. The two following steps are returning to the property in October or November, to embark on a Wellness package or programme and check by themselves how great it feels to be well.

How will the WWW play out this year?

Like last year, wherever possible, professionals will organise safe, in person group activities, outdoors to reconnect with nature (weather permitting), or indoors with spacious rooms where people can respectfully be 6-feet apart (aka. ‘a hockey stick apart’ in Canada, or a ‘dolphin apart’ in the Caribbean, or a ‘reindeer apart’ in Sweden. In countries or cities where the pandemic may still be raging, classes, workshop and talks will be accessible online, like TAJ Hotels and JIVA spas offering free inspiring and practical videos about the Science of Life (Ayurveda) through breathing techniques (Pranayama) and stretches (Yoga Asanas).

The fifth edition of the WWW will be hybrid so that we can be all highly connected socially through wellness, yet safely and respectfully physically distant. We shall honour the first line of responders, healthcare professionals, through the generosity and expertise of the second wave of responders, aestheticians and massage therapists who do so much more than just ‘touch skin’. With the noble art of massage, they ‘touch lives’, helping people reconnect with themselves and their life’s purpose.

Please name some of the bigger spa and wellness properties that will be participating this year.

• The TAJ group will have over 50 hotels participating in India and internationally, with in person and online activities about the benefits of Ayurveda.

• The MINOR group will organise breath-taking activities in its amazing Anantara and Vivanda resorts in the Maldives and across Asia.

• Six Senses will mobilise the talent and passion of most of their teams in hotels and resorts across the world to help people reconnect with themselves, and with nature.

• Fusion Resorts, the largest wellness group in Thailand will champion vitality and serenity across the country.

• Iconic properties will also participate such as Fivelements in Bali, Kamalaya in Thailand, Mandara Spas in Bali and across Asia, and more to be announced soon from the Marriott hotel group…

• For the first time ever, the International School of Busan (South Korea) will organise activities focusing on mental and physical wellness for kids.

• Italy will be extremely active with the Valley of Fiemme, rolling out an impressive programme of outdoors activities, whole cities with promote wellness initiatives in Alassio (Liguria), Alghero and Lolove (Sardinia) and the upscale district of Borgo Monferrato in Turino.

• The Wellness Tourism Association, the EHTTA (European Historical Thermal Towns Association), Paradise Coast in Florida, and the regions of Auvergne and Alsace in France will continue to mobilise more cities (town halls and visitors bureaus) to feature wellness tourism in the great outdoors, with activities for friends, couples and families to ‘take care’ of each other.

How do you and the ambassadors go about coordinating each year’s event?

There are many benefits in becoming an Ambassador of WWW. First, getting access to international best practices; second, joining monthly Zoom calls when professionals from their region share innovative ideas; and third, exposure in the media. These elements contribute to raise the profile of the spa, hôtel, tourism and wellness professionals. It helps them start conversations with local or province officials, governors, even secretaries of health, sports, and tourism. Together they organise online coordination meetings with hotels that offer to hosts activities performed by independent contractors (who usually lack the space to welcome large groups safely distant in their private practice).

We also send a ‘participation kit’ to all venues that want to participate and that contact us, with the logo and font; a PDF with marketing and organisational tips to attract new clients; a compilation of activities to inspire teams with original ideas; graphic assets they can use for their social pages; an official badge for participating venues, and a special ‘Wellness Champion’ badge for venues that go over and beyond.

CLICK HERE for venues participating in INDIA, which have signed up online to appear on the World Wellness Map.