The aim is for immersive wellness to make guests see and feel in a new way / Photo: Wund Holdings
What trends do you see driving change in wellness? From the music industry pivoting to wellness music to new technologies that capture our biometric data to create personalised, healing breathwork – wellness is undergoing a momentous digital transformation and we’re entering the era of adaptive, personalised digital wellbeing solutions.
You’re working with Thermengruppe Josef Wund to create new services – what will these look like? It’s all about immersive wellness. We’re developing a number of different technologies such as instructor-led or self-guided classes against changing, spectacular backdrops, delivered on room-sized curved screens in an immersive, biophilic environment. Also, multisensory chroma yoga, enabled with motion tracking-based feedback.
The aim is for immersive wellness to make guests see, feel and experience in a new and multisensory way.
Tell us more about Thermengruppe Josef Wund It’s a German company that designs, develops and operates resorts that combine the ancient tradition of thermal baths with the thrills of a modern waterpark, offering a wide range of wellness options.
This is all set within very large, architecturally spectacular, light-filled, biophilic spaces full of real vegetation and hundreds of giant palm trees.
The resorts offer guests a unique wellbeing proposition, a refuge from the stresses of daily life and a holiday destination that’s just a short commute away.
How did the partnership come about? When Thermengruppe Josef Wund approached us in early 2019, it was initially to develop a collaboration for our Virtual Reality SkySlide product, that we’d launched on the viewing platform of the Shard in London two years before (ww.spabusiness.com/skyslide).
However, during the course of our initial conversations, it quickly became clear that there was an opportunity to extend our collaboration beyond a single VR project, and look at ways of widening Wund’s core proposition beyond the physical and into the metaverse.
How did the partnership develop? Under the working title ‘Therme in your pocket’, we began a series of work-streams to establish and define how a digital ‘experiential’ layer could be added to their customer journey to meaningfully extend what was on offer in bricks and mortar; how we could enable digital and physical services for enhanced wellbeing, on site, on the go, at home, and at work.
At the discovery phase, we researched the market for digitally-enabled wellbeing services from blockbuster Apps such as Calm, as well as trends – for example, the quantified/optimised self and health metrics. What became clear, very quickly, was the need to differentiate the new offer, and the vision of the service that Wund would bring to the market from more generic wellbeing propositions.
What direction did you head in? We had to be clear about the specific and evolving needs and expectations of Wund’s core audience. Supported by a process of user and stakeholder interviews we arrived at a few key considerations. While the general wellness market has seen exponential growth, particularly in the shape of global, self-serve wellness apps – either VC-funded, or from tech incumbents – we wanted to ensure that Wund’s offer was more authentic, more connected with their physical sites and services and their local and regional audiences.
How are you making it different? With two million guests visiting Wund resorts annually, there’s a real gap for products and services that can meaningfully extend the company’s service offer and brand.
This presents a unique opportunity for a credible presence built on a well-established ecosystem within an otherwise increasingly crowded and generic wellness market.
The need for heightened focus on wellbeing has never been more acute. The pandemic has pushed narratives centre-stage that had been on the margins before, such as mental health, burnout, work-life balance, nutrition, and so on.
What will the new services look like? Digital therapeutics could offer digital-first wellness ‘prescriptions’, digital ‘treatments’ and curated content to alter mood and improve wellbeing. Our roadmap for Wund’s onsite and offsite programming will consist of two key principles:
1. Immersive Wellness Solutions These will deliver evidence-based wellness, combined with immersive technology to create interactive installations, experiential relaxation programmes and products.
2. The importance of community We want to support Wund’s community to transform anxiety, support healthier lifestyles, and improve productivity. This will happen by building a community around wellness and technology, supporting a transition from a transactional proposition to the consumer becoming partners in striving for attainable wellness.
And what effects will they have? These emerging ‘digital nutrition’ tools categorise content based on its proven ability to evoke six core emotions or mood groups: calm, confidence, connection, energy, focus, and happiness. These moods are linked to the activity of neurotransmitters and hormones such as GABA, dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins, acetylcholine, and serotonin.
How do you see the future of digital wellness? Wellbeing needs redefining now that being digital has become a ‘thing’. We’re excited to be part of the redefinition of how meaningful immersive experiences can add value and a sense of wellbeing to people, wherever they’re at home, at work, on the go or at play. We think of it as wellbeing remixed for the age of the metaverse.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2022 issue 2
Editor's letter: The wellness metaverse
We’re being handed a powerful new tool that will become a channel for creativity and innovation – pioneering wellness operators are already getting to grips with its exciting potential
Spa People: Michael Stusser
The wellness pioneer explains how he created an authentic Japanese bathing experience in the heart of the California hills
Spa People: Scot Toon
The Asia MD of The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts unveils the company's latest island development plans
Project preview: Off-grid
Svart Six Senses is set to open in Norway in 2024, and redefine the meaning of sustainable wellness tourism and regenerative travel
Sponsored: Myrtha Wellness: watertight expertise
Myrtha has transformed the world of aquatics over the last 60 years. Now it’s bringing its ingenuity-driven expertise to the international wellness industry
Interview: Rainer Usselmann
Tech business Happy Finish is bringing metaverse-based experiences to the wellness sector, working with Wund
Everyone's talking about: Menopause
From taboo to hot topic – how can spas offer treatments and a safe space for women to explore this often challenging phase of life?
Research: Bounceback
PwC says the US spa market was worth US$1bn in 2021 and growing well, according to data from ISPA's latest industry-wide study
First person: An icon reborn
Fairmont unveils the stunning renovation of its iconic Century Plaza hotel in LA, and Rianna Riego checks out the new spa
Q&A: Magdaleena Nikolov
The GM of spa, wellness and retail at Fairmont
Century Plaza talks to Jane Kitchen
Q&A: Mia Kyricos
The wellness leader talks about the creation of her new trademarked framework for the development and delivery of wellness interventions
Sponsored: Art of Cryo: raising the bar
Art of Cryo is complementing its high
performance cryotherapy range with advanced
new technology to enhance treatment benefits
Mystery Shopper: The Londoner
Our reviewer travels undercover to check out the spa offering at The Londoner – one of the most high profile openings in the capital in recent times
The aim is for immersive wellness to make guests see and feel in a new way / Photo: Wund Holdings
What trends do you see driving change in wellness? From the music industry pivoting to wellness music to new technologies that capture our biometric data to create personalised, healing breathwork – wellness is undergoing a momentous digital transformation and we’re entering the era of adaptive, personalised digital wellbeing solutions.
You’re working with Thermengruppe Josef Wund to create new services – what will these look like? It’s all about immersive wellness. We’re developing a number of different technologies such as instructor-led or self-guided classes against changing, spectacular backdrops, delivered on room-sized curved screens in an immersive, biophilic environment. Also, multisensory chroma yoga, enabled with motion tracking-based feedback.
The aim is for immersive wellness to make guests see, feel and experience in a new and multisensory way.
Tell us more about Thermengruppe Josef Wund It’s a German company that designs, develops and operates resorts that combine the ancient tradition of thermal baths with the thrills of a modern waterpark, offering a wide range of wellness options.
This is all set within very large, architecturally spectacular, light-filled, biophilic spaces full of real vegetation and hundreds of giant palm trees.
The resorts offer guests a unique wellbeing proposition, a refuge from the stresses of daily life and a holiday destination that’s just a short commute away.
How did the partnership come about? When Thermengruppe Josef Wund approached us in early 2019, it was initially to develop a collaboration for our Virtual Reality SkySlide product, that we’d launched on the viewing platform of the Shard in London two years before (ww.spabusiness.com/skyslide).
However, during the course of our initial conversations, it quickly became clear that there was an opportunity to extend our collaboration beyond a single VR project, and look at ways of widening Wund’s core proposition beyond the physical and into the metaverse.
How did the partnership develop? Under the working title ‘Therme in your pocket’, we began a series of work-streams to establish and define how a digital ‘experiential’ layer could be added to their customer journey to meaningfully extend what was on offer in bricks and mortar; how we could enable digital and physical services for enhanced wellbeing, on site, on the go, at home, and at work.
At the discovery phase, we researched the market for digitally-enabled wellbeing services from blockbuster Apps such as Calm, as well as trends – for example, the quantified/optimised self and health metrics. What became clear, very quickly, was the need to differentiate the new offer, and the vision of the service that Wund would bring to the market from more generic wellbeing propositions.
What direction did you head in? We had to be clear about the specific and evolving needs and expectations of Wund’s core audience. Supported by a process of user and stakeholder interviews we arrived at a few key considerations. While the general wellness market has seen exponential growth, particularly in the shape of global, self-serve wellness apps – either VC-funded, or from tech incumbents – we wanted to ensure that Wund’s offer was more authentic, more connected with their physical sites and services and their local and regional audiences.
How are you making it different? With two million guests visiting Wund resorts annually, there’s a real gap for products and services that can meaningfully extend the company’s service offer and brand.
This presents a unique opportunity for a credible presence built on a well-established ecosystem within an otherwise increasingly crowded and generic wellness market.
The need for heightened focus on wellbeing has never been more acute. The pandemic has pushed narratives centre-stage that had been on the margins before, such as mental health, burnout, work-life balance, nutrition, and so on.
What will the new services look like? Digital therapeutics could offer digital-first wellness ‘prescriptions’, digital ‘treatments’ and curated content to alter mood and improve wellbeing. Our roadmap for Wund’s onsite and offsite programming will consist of two key principles:
1. Immersive Wellness Solutions These will deliver evidence-based wellness, combined with immersive technology to create interactive installations, experiential relaxation programmes and products.
2. The importance of community We want to support Wund’s community to transform anxiety, support healthier lifestyles, and improve productivity. This will happen by building a community around wellness and technology, supporting a transition from a transactional proposition to the consumer becoming partners in striving for attainable wellness.
And what effects will they have? These emerging ‘digital nutrition’ tools categorise content based on its proven ability to evoke six core emotions or mood groups: calm, confidence, connection, energy, focus, and happiness. These moods are linked to the activity of neurotransmitters and hormones such as GABA, dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins, acetylcholine, and serotonin.
How do you see the future of digital wellness? Wellbeing needs redefining now that being digital has become a ‘thing’. We’re excited to be part of the redefinition of how meaningful immersive experiences can add value and a sense of wellbeing to people, wherever they’re at home, at work, on the go or at play. We think of it as wellbeing remixed for the age of the metaverse.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2022 issue 2
Editor's letter: The wellness metaverse
We’re being handed a powerful new tool that will become a channel for creativity and innovation – pioneering wellness operators are already getting to grips with its exciting potential
Spa People: Michael Stusser
The wellness pioneer explains how he created an authentic Japanese bathing experience in the heart of the California hills
Spa People: Scot Toon
The Asia MD of The Pavilions Hotels & Resorts unveils the company's latest island development plans
Project preview: Off-grid
Svart Six Senses is set to open in Norway in 2024, and redefine the meaning of sustainable wellness tourism and regenerative travel
Sponsored: Myrtha Wellness: watertight expertise
Myrtha has transformed the world of aquatics over the last 60 years. Now it’s bringing its ingenuity-driven expertise to the international wellness industry
Interview: Rainer Usselmann
Tech business Happy Finish is bringing metaverse-based experiences to the wellness sector, working with Wund
Everyone's talking about: Menopause
From taboo to hot topic – how can spas offer treatments and a safe space for women to explore this often challenging phase of life?
Research: Bounceback
PwC says the US spa market was worth US$1bn in 2021 and growing well, according to data from ISPA's latest industry-wide study
First person: An icon reborn
Fairmont unveils the stunning renovation of its iconic Century Plaza hotel in LA, and Rianna Riego checks out the new spa
Q&A: Magdaleena Nikolov
The GM of spa, wellness and retail at Fairmont
Century Plaza talks to Jane Kitchen
Q&A: Mia Kyricos
The wellness leader talks about the creation of her new trademarked framework for the development and delivery of wellness interventions
Sponsored: Art of Cryo: raising the bar
Art of Cryo is complementing its high
performance cryotherapy range with advanced
new technology to enhance treatment benefits
Mystery Shopper: The Londoner
Our reviewer travels undercover to check out the spa offering at The Londoner – one of the most high profile openings in the capital in recent times
People taking GLP-1 weight loss medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound
may be losing weight, but they’re also becoming less physically active, according to new
research presented at the ENDO 2026 annual meeting of the Endocrine Society
Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Mubadala Capital has made a binding, fully financed
€1 billion
offer to acquire Pierre and Vacances SA, the European holiday resort operator behind the
continental European Center Parcs business.
Global retreat trade show, Synergy The Retreat Show, has launched a resource called The
Source, which hosts an open-access online Transformation Series programme.
The Standards Authority for Touch in Cancer Care (SATCC) charity has announced its first five-
day Living with Cancer and Beyond retreat, which will be held at Carden Park Hotel and Spa in
Cheshire, UK, between 1 and 5 September.
Patmos Aktis, a Luxury Collection Resort and Spa, has opened in Greece, with a renovated and
rebranded wellness offering called Ansana Wellness and Spa.
The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, an Autograph Collection property in Hawaii, US, has opened its
22,000 sq ft indoor-outdoor Spa at Mauna Kea as the final step in the property’s overall
renovation, which has cost more than US$180 million (€166 million, £140 mill
The UK spa review and discovery platform for consumers, the Good Spa Guide, has announced
it will host the Good Spa Guide Awards 2026 during an event on 16 November at Sopwell House
Hotel in St Albans, UK.
Eighty-four per cent of consumers now say wellness is a top priority in their lives, with this
percentage increasing year on year, according to a preview presentation of McKinsey’s Future of
Wellness 2026 research report.
Mass protests have been taking place since Monday 1 June in Albania over the development of
a luxury resort by Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.
Global Wellness Day (GWD) marked its 15th anniversary on Saturday 13 June 2026, with the
theme: #JoyMagenta – a celebration of the healing qualities of simple gestures and activities
that spark joy.
