Wellness is a mega business. Globally, its growth in 2022 to a whopping $5.6 trillion — according to a recent report — narrates that story in no uncertain measure. India is not far behind: the wellness market in the country is growing at a staggering pace and estimated to cross $72 billion by 2025.
India Watch, a market research and business intelligence advisory, also says the domestic market is growing at a CAGR of 28%, fuelled by increasing demand for wellness, healing and long-term rejuvenation.
A report by Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a global research and educational resource for the global wellness industry, says the wellness economy will carry this momentum at an 8.6% annual pace through 2027, making the market reach $8.5 trillion — nearly double its 2020 size of $4.4 trillion.
Categories such as personal care and beauty; healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss; physical activity and wellness tourism top the charts among the 11 sectors listed in the report.
The India wellness tourism market is expected to grow from $18.25 billion in 2023 to $24.94 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 6.45% during the forecast period (2023-2028), a report by Mordor Intelligence states.
India already has unique strengths in traditional forms of well-being such as yoga, ayurveda and various forms of meditation as well as alternative healing. Besides these and contemporary practices of wellness tourism, the country has immense potential to position itself as a global wellness hub. The pandemic also served as a rude wake-up call and paved the way for cleaner eating habits, an active lifestyle and wellness therapies that focus on self-care. On top of that, the move towards greener and sustainable tourism and wellness is gaining ground. India ticks all these boxes, and is already known for tourism. In such a backdrop, the country can leverage the opportunity that is fast gaining momentum and promises to up the growth trajectory. But how can India vie for a greater chunk of the global wellness pie?
Wellness tourism
One sector where the country can really scale up is its range of Ayurvedic resorts, destination spas, healing workshops and wellness retreats spread across various parts. Destinations such as Kerala, Goa and Mysore are among the popular haunts that tourists make a beeline for. Rishikesh, for instance, is known as the yoga capital of the world and attracts tourists from all over the globe.
Amit Damani, Co-Founder, StayVista, says that India is ideally positioned to cater to the wellness and health industry. “There is a lot of focus now on overall mental and health wellness and it will just keep increasing. It is just an offshoot of the way we live in cities — everyone is looking for ways in which they can be more productive and healthy,” he says.
StayVista — which has wellness retreats offering Ayurvedic spas, organic food, and rejuvenation-focus — sees 5% of their bookings from wellness tourists, up from 2% previously.
“The market is evolving but we see a lot of opportunity here,” says Damani. The segment needs to be marketed better to boost this space. “No one is focused on selling an experience. It is about how one explains an experience to a guest. The industry is still trying to work on it. Better packaging, more visibility to consumers and relevant partnerships can help this segment go up. We are targeting 15% in bookings via wellness over the next couple of years.”
Industry professionals attest to the fact that ayurveda and other such wellness concepts have played an important role in improving health and wellness tourism numbers in the country.
Anupriya Biswas, Rooms Division Manager, Hyatt Regency Dehradun Resort and Spa, says that while the market is flooded with mom-and-pop spas, Indians have started to expect the best in service standards, products and customer experience. “Everyone in this day and age is stressed out and tense, and they all need a place to unwind and recharge,” she says. This is pushing more customers to such places. As more people start experiencing these services, their demand for exclusive and upmarket experience also increases.
Healthy eating, nutrition & weight loss
Another category that is gaining traction among Indian consumers is clean eating. GWI predicts this sector to have the biggest market size from the list of 11 sectors, at $1,500.7 by 2027. Can India follow a similar trend in the segment?
Numbers in India show that clean eating is generating a lot of interest among consumers. IMARC Group pegs the India weight management market size at $20.8 billion in 2022. It expects the market to reach $37.9 billion by 2028, exhibiting a growth rate of 10.6% during 2023-2028.
Industry experts talk about how there has been an increased focus on such health aspects, which include varied treatments for consumers.
Sahil Bansal, Co-Founder & CEO of Fitelo, a platform focused on weight loss management, recalls how they witnessed a surge in queries on flu remedies as well as immunity strategies during and after the pandemic. “80% of the queries we got showed people being more concerned about overall well-being, not just weight loss. Additionally, for us, it’s all about educating our customers about the importance of home-cooked food as opposed to outsourced food, with increased emphasis on the quality of the nutrient intake and not the quantity,” he says.
The company has witnessed a 5X growth in its users in the past one year, from 20,000 to 1,00,000. Its client ratio is largely dominated by tier-3 towns at 32.14%, followed by tier-2 at 15.97% and tier-1 at 21.96%.
Ruchika Rajbans, Founder of Arechar Nutra, a nutraceutical company, says that aspects such as inadequate sleep, depression and stress levels are on the rise. “Prioritising mental health is very important. And if you have the right gut health, mental health will be right too. We see a lot of demand for some of our products,” she says, adding that dietary supplements, and focus on gut issues and women’s health are seeing a higher uptake.
Personal care & beauty
The global personal care and beauty market, according to GWI, stands next only to healthy eating in projected market size by 2027. Projected to scale up to $1437.7, personal care and beauty market makes up a significant component of the global wellness industry.
These comprise services like cosmetics, skincare products, fragrances, personal hygiene, and grooming products, among others. In India, the beauty and personal care market size stood at $26.3 billion in 2022, with estimates of reaching $38.0 billion by 2028, according to the IMARC Group. Incidentally, a lot of eco-friendly alternatives in cosmetics and recycled products are now becoming increasingly popular in this segment, especially with Gen Z.
Preeti Seth, Founder at Pachouli Aesthetics and Wellness, a Delhi-based wellness clinic chain, which offers advanced skin and hair treatments, says the beauty and wellness industry is fuelled by the intersection of rising disposable incomes, amplified awareness of beauty products among the youth, and a surging demand for aesthetic services. “The influx of working women who prioritise aesthetic treatments underscores the expanding consumer base. Simultaneously, the demand for organic skin and hair care products is surging, indicating a paradigm shift towards holistic well-being.”
Besides this, she says, there is also a demand for tech-integrated wellness solutions that offer accessibility and real-time tracking of progress.
A lot more can be done to bolster India’s wellness positioning, such as augmenting accessible wellness education as well as integrating AI-driven technologies to revolutionise personalised healthcare. “A concerted effort towards research, innovation and the alignment of AI in wellness technologies will catapult India to a prominent global stance in the wellness sphere,” Seth adds.
Her views hold true for other segments of wellness as well that have the potential to become prominent income and employment generators. Sub-sectors such as physical activity; wellness real estate; traditional and complementary medicine; mental wellness and workplace wellness are now more visible in this domain in India, too. For instance, the GWI report predicts that wellness real estate will enter the top five sectors in 2025, and will explode from a $398 billion market in 2022 to $887.5 billion in 2027. India, too, is seeing a rise in wellness-oriented residences that have a focus on serene spaces, programmes promoting mindfulness and relaxing therapies all under one roof. The future is promising.
India has all it takes to be a leading player in the business of healing and wellness. It just needs to arrest the bottlenecks and go full throttle in a sector in which it already has a comfortable edge.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/sme-sector/global-wellness-economy-is-5-6-trillion-india-should-vie-for-a-larger-chunk-of-the-pie/articleshow/106142092.cms
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