A recent Euromonitor report on Consumer Health in 2022 ¹, surveyed more than 20,000 people across 20 markets to find out more about how lifestyles and attitudes towards health are changing.
This is super useful information for the tourism industry because as everyone knows, travel is intrinsically connected to wellness, rest, and rejuvenation.
But not only that, Euromonitor has broken the results down per geographical region, so that can really help you to create specific products that are laser targeted to your customer markets.
So, take a look at the highlights I have chosen that will specifically help us understand what our guests are looking for.
Europeans trail the pack when it comes to the perception of health per region with those from the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America showing the most confidence in their health rankings.
This next section is also of interest for hoteliers.
Concluding that “health and mental wellbeing are closely linked”, it details that “16% of European consumers in 2022 report feeling extreme or high stress daily”.
That is a HUGE market for the industry to appeal to.
Consumers were asked what “being healthy” means to them, and two of the top five responses are clearly linked to mental and emotional wellness.
Mental wellbeing (65%)
Having a healthy immune system (62%)
Getting enough sleep (59%)
Feeling 'good' (58%)
Emotional wellbeing (56%)
Imagine creating a workshop called “How to Improve Your Immune System”! 62% of the market reported that this is of importance to them. Golden.
Also, of relevance to creating content that appeals to your target audiences, the responses of younger Europeans showed that the population aged 15-29 and 30-44 reported lower self-health ratings.
This is no doubt aligned with general, wider reaching stress-inducing issues that hit our headlines every day such as concerns about climate change, rising costs, overloaded parents, stress-strained relationships, lack of community, caring for older generations, etc.
Anything mentioned in the list above with “How to… “ before it would be of interest to a large section of that population distribution.
Also of use when planning marketing content, Europeans report being the “least likely to participate in stress reduction activities”? Almost half of respondents across all regions reported regularly participating in stress reduction activities, whereas in Europe, the figure was just one-quarter.
This of course opens up another question as to how we define “stress reduction activities”. It is of course highly subjective based on your baseline level of stress, available time for said activities, even the weather can influence who does what and where.
Therein lies an opportunity for you as a hotel owner, to truly understand the pain points of your target audience(s) so you can create packages that serve them and help them get the results they need.
If you are based in Latin American, or have Latin American customers, you will be happy to hear that they tend to rely on “exercise and general physical activities as an outlet for their stress”.
If you are in the Middle East or Africa, or have customers from those regions, they reported a tendency to reach for vitamins and supplements.
And for the North American market, they are more likely to take a more “pharmaceutical approach” where they consulted with a doctor to receive prescription medications.
This is insightful information for designing workshops or local events that will appeal to your target market.
The report goes on to share that,across the board “15% of consumer treating stress of anxiety follow a special diet”.
I have a perfect example here in the form of a personal story.
Since February this year I have been doing intermittent fasting and have lost 5 kilos. However, my intention was not driven by weight loss but by a desire to better manage my metabolism.
My stress load was exacerbated by multiple mood swings during the day which I could only manage by consuming something that brought my blood-sugar levels back up. Having completed blood tests to be sure that there were no major health problems, I concluded that I needed to better manage my eating habits to regulate these up and downs.
Intermittent fasting seemed an easy option for my busy lifestyle and once the initial headaches from the first few days had subsided, I no longer crave anything during the day. Ever.
In fact, my body craves only the healthy stuff. It has been a wonderful process to observe, and the knock-on effects have benefitted my whole family who are now completely saved from my “hangry” outbursts.
Imagine if you held a workshop to teach people more about something like this that has the power to change a whole family dynamic?
Thinking outside of the box is a great way to stand out online.
Consider getting people excited about your new workshop offer by inviting them to a webinar that introduces the topic.
Remember, you don’t have the be the expert either – though it would be amazing if you were of course! You can however get on with that all important target audience research, define those pain points, design an offer, and invite a specialist to host the workshop.
This is beautiful content material for your hotel. Get started today, and if you have any questions, need a hand, want to share some ideas, or even get more info on my intermittent fasting experience, drop a message in the comments below or send an email to sarah@sarahhabsburg.com . I answer every mail I receive.
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