Canyon Ranch CEO says wellness travel for ‘alpha executives’ is a growing trend

One arm of this booming business increasingly is catering to burned-out executives with everything from sleep-focused holidays complete with AI-powered beds to longevity-centric retreats offering stem cell therapy. 

Meeting the growing demand means “we’re reinventing ourselves every day,” says Mark Rivers, CEO of the OG wellness resort Canyon Ranch.

“For years, we could sit back, and [guests] would come to us because we were one of the few in the space,” Rivers tells Fortune. “But today, we know that guests are interested in longevity. We know they’re interested in menopause, and we know they’re interested in burnout and resilience.” 

In 1979, when Canyon Ranch first opened, it called itself a “fitness resort,” Rivers says. Four decades later, fitness is just one piece of the puzzle. The wellness leader, which operates two main resorts in Lenox, Mass., and Tucson, Ariz., along with several day spas—including the largest in North America at the Venetian in Las Vegas—is in development on its first ground-up build in Austin, Texas. 

Fortune spoke with Rivers about how Canyon Ranch is catering its properties and programming to meet the needs of modern-day executives.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How is Canyon Ranch adapting its offerings to meet the specific needs of today’s executive traveler?

Clearly, in the business and executive space, the alpha executives, male and female alike, are keenly focused on their own health and well-being. Today, it’s a source of information seeking and expertise seeking. Many of the alpha executives have the means and the desire to live longer or live healthier longer, myself included.

Sometimes I refer to us as a wellness hospitality company, and sometimes I refer to us as a wellness experience company. We’re probably both. 

Some entrepreneurs might figure out how to do a DEXA scan in a shopping mall without a doctor and without integrative medicine. We kind of figure out how to make it all part of an integrative approach to sort of help tackle your body, mind, and spirit. 

It’s both lifespan and health span. Lifespan is how long you live. Health span is how long you live in good health. Hitting 103 but spending the last 10 years in a chair is not a win for me. I just want to live my healthiest, best life as long as I possibly can. I’m a melting ice cube, right? So executives in the business world today have the means and the interest because wellness is at the intersection of almost every major industry in our country. 

Which programs appeal to executives the most? 

Our Longevity8 program, in particular, has become a hotspot for executives in corporate America. We do a cohort every month, with people, whether an executive from Nvidia or a founder of an AI program, or CEOs and their spouses. 

Last year, we launched the program, which is a four-day program for people to come to our Tucson property only, and dive into the eight principles of longevity that we see. It’s not just nutrition. It’s not just sleep, in our view. It’s eight different things, including the outdoors, including spiritual wellness, including your mental health, including your flexibility, and your movement. 

Are there any other trends that are top of mind regarding how high-performing professionals and executives are approaching their wellness today? 

We’re about to launch a burnout and resilience program. In particular, we’re seeing a lot of discussion around that and with programs for women’s wellness. 

Women make up 60% of our customer base, so being able to go out specifically to a female audience of corporate executives makes this really distinctive and really unique. 

In what ways are you targeting wellness for women executives? 

We have leaned in heavily, not just around longevity, but within the context of longevity, around menopause, perimenopause, and postpartum hormonal therapy. To lead our whole program around health and performance, we just brought in a female doctor. That position has typically been male. For the Longevity8 program, we actually have an upcoming cohort that’s women only, and so we are actually modifying some of the programming and some of the services and consultation specifically around women’s health … [it’s not just] the Tech Bros in t-shirts.

You mentioned a new program on burnout. Are leaders coming together and using travel to talk about issues around burnout and stress?

We see companies that are trying to be proactive about [burnout], so by the time you are stressed out, and then basically have to tap out, that’s almost too late. Well, there are treatments and processes to try to embrace and help people reset. 

I have stress myself. I’m an alpha executive in my own right, and it affects my sleep for sure, and it affects my personality traits at times, and how I deal with people impacts my emotions and my mental health. The question is, what can I do proactively to come out with a better version of myself? Those are areas that I think we can help with. I’ve seen it myself firsthand. I’m a 21st-century executive who now journals. I’m a 21st-century executive who seeks meditation and practices yoga on occasion and uses walking and hiking to help me digitally detox or reset.

Are you seeing a shift in how luxury consumers define “value” in wellness and travel experiences?

What people are looking for today is information, rituals and practices, and baselines that can be tracked. Data is available and is important. 

We want to send our guests home with something meaningful to change their lifestyle, and data that can help them measure, monitor, and set objectives. We want to send you home with practices, information, and guidance. 

Courtesy of Canyon Ranch

We want to go on travel experiences that are unforgettable, that are memorable, that inspire us, that live with us forever. I think it’s the same thing on anybody’s wellness journey. And when they visit us at Canyon Ranch, it’s like we want to send you home inspired and with information to help you change your life for the better.

And it’s the human piece. We’re better when we connect with other humans. We’re better when we build lifelong relationships. Wellness is the ultimate human endeavor, and to be able to go on that path with other humans who are either our experts, our friends, or our community, that’s the game changer in a world that’s dominated by what’s the latest app. 

When you think about the future of Canyon Ranch, and wellness travel for professionals, what do you see in the next five to 10 years?

I see people who have less and less time to spend. We’re seeing people who stay for shorter durations. I think people continue to be very hungry for information, very hungry for experiences that they can’t otherwise access. 

All of us in the wellness industry have to weave our way through the latest technology. What’s real, what’s a fad, and what’s evidence-based? So we continue to work our way through that every day. I think we’re also going to continue to see that one-two punch of human connection and expertise alongside technology. It’s not just one or the other. It’s not just going to your doctor physically for your checkup. It’s also not just doing all of your health with your thumb on your iPhone. 

If every Fortune 500 CEO took one Canyon Ranch experience tomorrow, which would you recommend and why?

I think for both men and women alike, our Longevity8 program is the most thorough and the most thoughtful that there is. There are 18 one-on-one consults, testing against 200 biomarkers, and eight different practices of longevity. As a woman executive in particular, our M/Power program is around perimenopause and menopause. 

We try to make each of these practices less of a drive-by and more of a deep dive.