GWI just unveiled new data on the wellness real estate market, by far the fastest growing wellness sector. It exploded from $151 billion in 2017 to $876 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2030. The US ($254B), China ($218B) and the UK ($51B) are the three largest national markets. Every one of the top 20 markets experienced at least 15% annual growth since 2019, with Italy (50%), Spain (46%) and Saudi Arabia (34%) seeing the biggest annual growth gains from 2019 to 2025. Read the press release for more data.
The GWI also released a new case studies series on groundbreaking wellness real estate projects in Saudi Arabia and the UAE—two of the world’s fastest growing markets. They reveal a market defined by audacious, large-scale projects, along with unusually powerful commitments to sustainability, community wellbeing and local heritage. The report is packed with info, from detailing each project’s “distinctive approaches to wellness” to identifying 10 key takeaways for global developers, from how sustainability is increasingly becoming a burning (and more holistically conceived) priority, to how powerful demographic shifts are creating new markets, from co-housing to senior living.
It’s now summer travel time in the West, the peak overtourism season. Overtourism destroys wellbeing in so many ways, for individual travellers, by hurting the planet, and threatening the financial and overall wellbeing of residents––from rising rents and costs to unravelling the local social fabric. Overtourism will increasingly impact wellness destinations, who will need to work harder to restore local ecosystems and communities or risk losing the “wellness brand.” To tackle overtourism, we need to look at what tourist-swarmed Japan is doing. They still aim to significantly increase tourism through 2030, but have created a multifaceted strategy that uses pricing, access restrictions, AI to spread crowds, and smart incentives to move people beyond the hotspots. They are out in front in breaking the overtourism doom loop.
GWI’s website (www.wellnessevidence.com) is the only resource dedicated to the medical evidence for wellness approaches.
Study: Engaging with the Arts Slowed Biological Aging as Much as Exercise
A new study from University College London analyzed data on 3,500-plus people in the UK Biobank and found that both the frequency with which people engage with the arts, as well as the number of different ways in which they do so, can slow the aging process. They analyzed data from seven different aging clocks. Previous studies have demonstrated links between cultural engagement and better health outcomes (for cognition, depression and mortality), but this is the first study to examine how the arts impact biological aging. They found “comparable effect sizes” between physical activity and engagement with the arts.
GWI’s Build Well to Live Well Case Studies, Volume 1: United States and United Kingdom, presents 13 case studies that illustrate a wide range of wellness real estate projects across the US and the UK. The takeaway: wellness can be implemented in projects at any scale, for any kind of occupants, at any price point. In 2026, The Brief is spotlighting one case study each month to inspire others to build projects of all kinds, for all people, in the future.
Daphne Steele Building, University of Huddersfield National Health Innovation Campus Huddersfield, Northern England, UK
A healthy and sustainable facility for training allied health professionals, located on a new university campus designed to improve regional health outcomes and create a leading center for innovation in healthcare.
The Daphne Steele building, which opened in 2024, is home to state-of-the-art allied heath teaching facilities and patient care facilities. It is the first building to be constructed on the University of Huddersfield’s new National Health Innovation Campus, which is the first university to apply healthy building practices across an entire campus—connecting healthy built environments to innovation in healthcare training, service delivery, and entrepreneurship. As an urban redevelopment project, the new campus aims to be transformative for one of the most deprived regions in the UK, by improving health outcomes and creating a leading center for innovation in healthcare.
It features several innovative approaches to human health and wellbeing: • A “Well Living Lab” and a catalyst for community health and wealth building. • Designed to enhance the wellbeing of diverse occupants and users. • An innovative teaching laboratory for allied health professionals.
Chronic disease is increasingly striking young Americans. Almost half of new colorectal cancer cases now occur in the under-65; 1 in 5 heart attacks affects people under 40; and rates of high blood pressure and obesity are rising fastest among younger adults.
Source: The American Cancer Society, JAHA, and the CDC - May 2026
Global Wellness Institute, 333 S.E. 2nd Ave, Suite 2045, Miami, Florida 33131, United States
