At the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in Dubai this week, the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) held its third annual Wellness Symposium, presenting the latest research and trends for the Middle East-North Africa wellness tourism markets.

In terms of recent growth percentages, no wellness tourism market is growing faster than MENA’s: 13.4 per cent annually (from 2015–2017) to reach US$10.7bn. MENA’s spa industry is also seeing explosive 15.4 per cent yearly growth, and is now valued at US$2.8bn. And its thermal/mineral springs market also has the #1 recent growth rate worldwide at 30 per cent a year.

Wellness trips across MENA (domestic and inbound combined) grew from 8.5 million in 2015 to 11 million in 2017. Wellness tourism revenues jumped from US$8.3bn in 2015 to US$11bn in 2017 and will grow another 75 per cent to reach US$18.7 billion by 2022.

MENA’s recent wellness tourism revenue growth rate of 13.3 per cent annually is more than double the global average (6.5 per cent).

And MENA wellness travellers are high spenders: spending 44 per cent more on inbound wellness trips (US$1,305) than the average traveller to the region, while domestic wellness trips command a 65 per cent premium (US$599).