A newly formed non-profit organisation has formed with the aim of promoting wellness through education to both spa professionals and consumers.

The International Health & Wellness Alliance (IHWA) has been formed to bring together wellness visionaries and seekers to define, educate and advance health and wellbeing for individuals and communities.

Forged at the Global Spa and Wellness Summit in New Delhi, India, which took place this week, the founding members of the new alliance includes the Chiva-Som health resort in Thailand; Como Hotels & Resorts, Destination Spa Management Ltd; Gwinganna Lifestyle Retreat in Australia; Kamalaya Resort in Thailand; Longevity Wellness Resort in Portugal; Rancho La Puerta in Mexico and Sha Wellness Clinic in Spain.

Also included as IHWA founding members are Dr Daniel Friedland of SuperSmartHealth, Stella Photi of Wellbeing Escapes and spa consultant Lucie Brosseau.

The IHWA held its inaugural meeting at GSWS on 7 October to gauge interest in the organisation and to get the industry’s opinion on what IHWA can and should do.

“Many people in the industry didn’t realise what wellness was, the term was loosely thrown around,” said Samantha Foster, director of spa consultancy firm Destination Spa Management and founding member of the IHWA. “We want to formalise the term and equip the industry with evidence-based, good quality wellness information.”

Foster says the term ‘wellness’ has been oversimplified and has become a buzz-word in the spa industry. “Wellness is more than healthy food, yoga and a massage,” she said. “True wellness covers six areas – physical, emotional, intellectual, social, environmental and spiritual. We want to educate people on that.”

Foster said that the IHWA would be taking a similar approach to the Khan Academy, which makes education freely available to anyone, anywhere in the world.

“We want to expand the wellbeing industry to create an ongoing lifestyle change,” said Foster, who believes that for effective wellness it has to continue at home after visitors leave the spa and that wellness advice needs to be available across all socio-economic classes.

Over the next few days the IHWA will form its board of directors and is aiming for open membership early in 2014, with membership to be as inclusive as possible so as to maximise the reach for education.

For more information go to: http://www.ihwa.co/