[The Next Huge Marketing Opportunity for Resorts]
A new report from the World Health Organization quantifies how bad our global lack of exercise is. WHO researchers, in describing their findings, decried "a pandemic of physical inactivity."
According to WHO, our sloth costs the planet $67.5 billion and an estimated 5 million lives a year.That is more than Apple, the most profitable company in 2015, netted that year - $39.5 billion.A lot of money is at stake and the deaths up the poignancy. Smoking kills six million a year. But lack of fitness is catching up.
Revenues of the US spa business are upwards of $14 billion annually - but feast on the potential of fitness. It has a lot more potential than does spa at this crucial point in human history.
Fitness - taking real steps to reverse our decline into physical wrecks -
is,I believe, primed to become a major economic engine, quite simply because
we need help.
I like spa, a lot, but spa won't save the planet. Fitness just may.
Literally thousands of hotels and resorts are stampeding into what they call wellness but listen up: insincere, insipid, half-hearted and desultory stabs at wellness programming aren't what is needed and neither are they likely to help slow the tsunami of inactivity costs.
We sit at our desks eight hours a day. Maybe longer. We sit more hours in front of the TV. We do a lot of sitting and the trouble is, that sedentary lifestyle is robbing our wealth as it kills us.
Here's how WHO calculated the costs of lethargy. Said the WHO researchers in an article published in British medical journal The Lancet: "Direct health-care costs and DALYs [disability-adjusted life-years] were estimated for coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, and colon cancer attributable to physical inactivity. Productivity losses were estimated with a friction cost approach for physical inactivity related mortality."
What do we need to heal ourselves?
The WHO researchers prescribe one hour daily of real physical activity
- which can be as uncomplicated as a fast walk. Maybe 3.5 mph.
Personally I believe we need more. If it were in fact that easy, we would not be in a crisis.
What we need to exit the crisis is fitness programming that engages us, that excites us, that keeps us interested.
Around the ｃountry I see maybe a dozen specialty resorts that get this.
They offer honed, individualized fitness programs, typically geared around weight loss, but often there are options for customized programs (for marathoners, for instance, or for triathletes).
It takes brains and experience to craft these programs if they are to work. Look at New Year's resolutions - losing weight and getting fit are perennial top five resolutions. And they hold our attention until, oh, mid-January when they are forgotten as we sit at our desks, munching donuts and swilling sugary
coffee.
How to stick with a real fitness regimen? Do it in a group peer relationships will help us stay with it and follow an inventive plan that keeps us guessing at what's next.
A smart fitness-focused resort is primed to offer exactly that kind of program.
I see a place for three-day mini camps, and seven-day full-scale programs.
I see opportunities for camps for adults, for women only, for men only and definitely for teens only and pre-teens only.
There will be maybe three hours of full-out exercise and the rest of the day will be filled with classes in meditation, new fitness techniques, diet, and more. Fill the mind as we exercise the body.
Set up participants to succeed after they leave the resort.
That's key. What happens after the last day? Programs will be judged as much on their success afterwards as on their wow factor during.
A lot more resorts will talk about this than will make a commitment to making it happen at the level that's needed to generate real changes.
The opportunity is there and it will be seized by those who see the enormity of the issue our planet faces - and also see that there are direct ways to tackle our laziness and even make the remedy fun.
What could be more fun? Succeeding in business while saving the planet. It doesn't get better.
Source: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4077462.html
Image Source: http://bswllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Health_wellness_apple_weights_tape-measure.jpg
Vocabulary Words:
1. Pandemic - (adj.) Prevalent over a whole ｃountry or the world.
2. Poignancy - (noun) The quality of evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret
3. Crucial - (adj.) Decisive or critical, especially in the success or failure of something
4. Crisis - (noun) A time of intense difficulty or danger
5. Regimen - (noun) A prescribed course of medical treatment, diet, or exercise for the promotion or restoration of health
Discussion Questions:
1. Does Kangwon Land offer wellness and fitness activities for guests?
2. What wellness or fitness activities or facilities does Kangwon Land have?
3. Do you think wellness will be a good idea for resorts to offer to guests?
Why do you think so?
4. In your opinion, should resorts offer more physical activities for guests to participate
in? Why?
5. Would this marketing strategy work for Kangwon Land? Why?
