SHA Wellness Clinic is one of the world’s leading health-focused retreats. Beginning in Alicante, Spain in 2008, the brand is now expanding to Mexico later in 2023 and to the Emirates in 2024. We sat down with SHA Vice President Alejandro Bataller Pineda to talk about travel trends, wellness now and the future of SHA.
SHA Vice President Alejandro Bataller Pineda
The wellness industry has experienced tremendous growth in the last decade, but this growth has become even more pronounced in the last two years.
Interestingly, the fastest growing segment comes from those close to the halfway point of life, many already on a healthy path, increasingly interested in combining the enjoyment of life with the care of their health and wellbeing, capitalising on their free time to reset themselves and acquire new habits in order to improve its performance, vitality and appearance. The “performance seekers” are in search of getting the most out of their capacities, and they look for very concrete goals for their stay. Optimal weight, mental performance, sleep performance and sexual performance are some of the most common goals.
They look for an integrative approach to achieve their targets, personalised healthy nutrition, physical exercise, and holistic therapies, but without a doubt, technology has an increasingly important role for this audience. Today we count on futuristic technology that allows us to have tremendously detailed information about our health in a matter of minutes with a preventative health screening circuit, increase our cognitive capacity through brain transcranial electrical stimulation, and, of course, achieve an enviable physique through non-invasive technology that simultaneously uses radiofrequency and HIFEM+ (high-intensity focused electromagnetic energy) to eliminate fat and build muscle. Mental wellbeing, analysis and care of the microbiota, and NAD IV therapies are some of the trends in the wellness arena.
Users of luxury tourism seek not only an experience but also a transformation – something that marks a turning point in some aspect of life. Be it at the level of health and wellbeing, at the cultural, spiritual, adventure level... Fewer trips and longer duration, more qualitative. People have invested in their homes, and they highly value what they get in exchange for leaving the comfort of their homes. The authentic focus on the part of luxury brands towards a policy of positive impact on the environment as well as on the collaborators and local community is no longer a "nice to have" but rather an essential for a very experienced and discerning audience. Simplify processes as much as possible, and avoid the pompous. Authenticity! That same simplicity and authenticity is required for gastronomy, with more and more weight being placed on focusing on local and seasonal quality products.
Europe, Asia and the US have been leading the wellness arena so far with very different approaches. Europe focused on medical wellbeing, the US on boot camp concepts, and Asia on a predominantly holistic approach. Apart from the consolidation of the wellness offer in these markets, the Middle East and Latin America will be the markets that will experience the most significant growth in wellness tourism in the coming period. Users accustomed to experiencing the different approaches according to the market are increasingly looking for an integrative approach that combines the different disciplines, increasing the effectiveness that they would have separately.
Pilates at SHA Spain
We have recently launched a state-of-the-art Health Screening Lab that provides all the relevant information on the real state of health of each guest in a very short time, fusing the most cutting-edge devices to analyse your cognitive capacity, cardiovascular risk, the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, the level of physical and mental stress, the ageing of the blood vessels and arterial elasticity, measure of glycated proteins in tissue and a complete body composition analysis including a 5th-generation 3D body scanner, creating an avatar of the guest that allows us to measure body perimeters and analyse the waist-to-hip ratio also gives us relevant data on body position and the distribution of the weight load on the feet, which helps us to recommend postural re-education therapies.
We are now Launching a Leaders Performance Program. We have been helping leaders to achieve their health goals and reach their maximum intellectual potential for 15 years. As a result of this experience, SHA’s multidisciplinary team of experts has created Leader’s Performance, a new programme focused on the specific needs of all those people who face high levels of activity, effort and stress on a daily basis, and who wish to improve their performance and productivity while taking care of their health. CEOs and senior executives are used to prioritising professional goals in their daily lives, and it is essential that they transfer this prioritisation to their health care. That’s why we suggest that, for at least one week a year, they create an agenda similar to their work diary, in which they write down 10-year strategic health resolutions with annual tactical objectives.
In the Leader’s Performance programme, we work on the seven areas with the greatest impact on health and physical and cognitive performance: diet, physical exercise, rest, stress and emotion management, detoxification, recovery of the intestinal microbiota and hormonal balance. Of course, all protocols are customised according to the condition, age, gender and specific goals of each guest.
Leader's Performance has been designed as an intensive, week-long programme that includes the most cutting-edge neurocognitive stimulation treatments, the most effective holistic therapies, fully personalised nutrition and training plans, breathing and stress management classes, ozone therapy sessions, hormone supplementation consultation, biological profile analysis and a bioenergetic assessment. The ultimate goal is for each guest to reach their maximum physical and mental potential and enjoy optimal health and wellbeing.
SHA Mexico is going to be an unprecedented project for many reasons: for its privileged environment that allows us to enjoy a paradisiacal place while we achieve our health goals; for its architecture, led by the award-winning Sordo Madaleno, carefully designed to avoid impacting native wildlife while simulating the DNA chain; for its organic and contemporary design aesthetic using renewable and locally sourced materials; and, most importantly, for the integrative, transformative, cutting-edge and results-oriented SHA method.
SHA Mexico
More and more people want to make this healthy path their way of life and not limit it to an annual visit. It’s not about having a vacation home, it’s about supporting you on your life journey. Having a residence where every feature, every detail has been designed with your health and wellbeing in mind – from the idyllic location, to the architecture and design of your building, the choice of each natural and sustainable material used, the cutting-edge technology at the service of your wellbeing and comfort and, most importantly, the field’s most renowned international experts at your disposal – permanently.
SHA Residences represents a complete immersion in the SHA lifestyle, an opportunity to evolve continuously on a healthy path, to have your own sanctuary where you can retreat and reset mind and body whenever you need it. Spain and SHA Mexico have Residences, and SHA Emirates will also have residences.
SHA Residences