Picture this: You’re on a cruise, gazing out at the bright blue Mediterranean Sea. Then, instead of flopping into a lounge chair with a martini and a side of fries, you belly up to an IV station for a stem-cell treatment followed by some quick Botox and a healthy blue zone-inspired meal grown on the ship’s solar-powered organic farm.
It’s just a snippet of what happens on a Storylines’ wellness cruise, all in the name of longevity tourism—a rapidly growing sector of the $5.6 trillion wellness industry.
This new twist on travel “was born out of a powerful questioning of the century-old model of vacations— excess. Too much food and booze and too little sleep in tourist-crushed destinations,” Beth McGroarty, vice president of research at the non-profit Global Wellness Institute, tells Fortune. “It was a cliché because it was true: People would return feeling worse than when they left.”
Storylines calls itself the “blue zone at sea,” capitalizing on consumers’ desire to travel to get healthier and live longer—maybe even past 100—versus mindlessly indulging.
“Global travelers understand that in order to appreciate traveling the world, you need a certain level of health and fitness,” says Storylines CEO Alister Punton. “They want to be able to walk the cobblestoned streets of European cities, hike the Inca Trail and snorkel in the Red Sea. So it makes sense that longevity, wellness, and tourism go hand in hand.”
Also onboard: a 10,000 square-foot gym outfitted with yoga classes, meditation sessions, and personal trainers; smoothie bars; and an optimal-aging center with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, energy- and libido-enhancing treatments, and the aforementioned IV stations, where you can get anything from vitamins to chelation treatments, which pull heavy metals, like lead, from the bloodstream. (It is important to note that some longevity offerings available with travel, including stem cell treatments and hyperbaric oxygen chambers, are not widely tested nor approved by the FDA for the average, healthy person.)
So, is travel now rid of all-you-can-eat buffets and poolside piña coladas?
Definitely not for everyone—but certainly for some: Between 2020 and 2022, the number of people taking wellness trips increased by 30%, and the wellness tourism industry is expected to reach $1 trillion by the end of 2024, according to the Global Wellness Institute, which began tracking wellness tourism 15 years ago, just as use of smartphones began to rise. McGroarty believes it’s no coincidence.
“People have simply become far more stressed, depressed and unwell and they demand travel experiences that will help heal them,” she says.
Now, those trips have become intertwined with the rapidly expanding $27 billion longevity market, which is one of the fastest growing wellness sectors, per the Global Wellness Institute’s annual report. Itineraries—not only on cruises but at luxury resorts and vacation residences—are promising an oasis where the wellness spa meets the biohacker where they are at.
That’s the case at the Estate, a joint venture from SBE Entertainment Group chair Sam Nazarian and self-help guru Tony Robbins deemed “a revolutionary luxury hospitality & residential ecosystem anchored in the world of preventative medicine, AI and longevity,” set to launch 15 hotels and 10 longevity centers by 2030. Partnering with longevity center Fountain Life, preventive medicine clinics and anti-aging spas adjacent to five-star restaurants and suites will be the premise, starting at $1,000 a night, according to Bloomberg.
“We are not building medical hotels—we are building luxury hotels, residences and urban clinics that are differentiated by a commitment to changing people’s lives,” says Nazarian in a press announcement.
At Six Senses Ibiza, meanwhile, guests can venture to the RoseBar. Not to be mistaken as a place to acquire a late-night dirty martini, it’s a longevity club, which tests visitors’ biomarkers to deliver personalized lifestyle, nutrition, and exercise advice from a slew of health coaches. It also houses a cold plunge, hyperbaric oxygen chamber, infrared sauna, and IV infusion stations.
“No need to commit to a full retreat. You can simply drop in for a 30-minute red light session, a cryotherapy boost, or a restorative IV infusion to counter travel fatigue,” says Talana Bestall, a founding member of RoseBar. “It’s all about giving you the power to choose exactly what your body needs, when you need it.”
The bar pays homage to holistic measures of well-being, and “blends the powers of science and spiritual wellness to enhance the human health span,” promises the resort chain whose chief wellness officer is functional medicine doctor and celebrity longevity enthusiast Dr. Mark Hyman. You can also add on a deep dive into Dr. Hyman’s Young Forever program, a six-day detox to reframe aging, destress, and learn to turn on your “longevity switches.”
Below are a sampling of other luxury wellness getaways and their high-end offerings.
The four-course IV
At the Four Seasons Resort Maui, guests can indulge in a range of longevity-forward offerings more intense—and invasive—than the massage, gym, or facials typically associated with luxury travel.
For $44,000, for example, you can get a four-course ozone, stem-cell, exosome and NAD+ therapy, in partnership with longevity center Next|Health. And for a bargain of $299, you can get a “Hangover IV,” a 30-minute detoxification treatment, or a “Gut Health IV” to reduce inflammation.
200 biomarkers of data
The OG wellness resort and spa Canyon Ranch recently launched Longevity8, a four-day, $20,000 retreat in Tucson, Ariz., where stays kick off with a blood draw and personalized physician consultation, followed by sleep screenings and endurance assessments.
The hope is that guests will leave rejuvenated—with over 200 biomarkers assessed—and an action plan.
“The medical establishment is still not focused on prevention, so people of means are seeking new concierge medical-wellness destinations or programs to take control of their health before it’s a problem,” McGroarty says.
And now introducing…longevity school
Others, especially investors and venture capitalists, are keen to incorporate longevity education into their travel. And for $70,000, longevity entrepreneur Peter Diamandis offers a five-day “Platinum Longevity Trip,” where people learn the basics of optimizing sleep, nutrition, and exercise, alongside novel treatments and biohacks from researchers. He calls it his “five-day, five-star, deep dive into longevity.”
While Diamandis has hosted retreats for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs for over a decade, the longevity-focused itinerary, now in its sixth year, has only recently taken off, he says. “They’re there because they want to solve a health problem someone in their family is having,” he tells Fortune. “We customize everybody’s trip, meaning we interview all the members in advance and find out what they’re looking for … the demand and the interest for this has blossomed.”
Diamandis hypothesizes that the surge in longevity tourism stems from the rapid innovation in what he deems a “health span renaissance,” where research has highlighted the power the individual has to improve their health outcomes. As a result, wealthy entrepreneurs are eager to be at the cutting edge of using data to inform lifestyle and health outcomes.
And as aging in poor health is no longer seen as inevitable—at least for the privileged—more people are finding vacation time as the perfect chance to enhance their lifestyle choices. Whether it’s an IV before dinner or botox on the ship, people are redefining the meaning of travel, and it’s becoming increasingly exclusive.
“I call this new super-medical, high-tech, even more expensive wellness market a new ‘hardcare’ wellness,’” McGroarty says. “The medical-longevity programming is turning up in unexpected places.”
