Stem cells and ozone therapy: luxury tourism for longevity costs up to US$44,000
Imagine this: you’re on a cruise, gazing out at the brilliant blue Mediterranean Sea. Then, instead of lounging on a lounge chair with a martini and a side of fries, you head to an IV station for a stem cell treatment, followed by a quick Botox shot and a healthy, zone-inspired meal. blue, grown on the ship’s solar-powered organic farm.
This is just one example of what happens on a Storylines wellness cruise, all in the name of longevity tourism, an offering from the fast-growing, $5.6 trillion wellness industry.
Also read
What it means to be a healthy leader: check out a self-care checklist for leaders
How Brazil became Montblanc’s largest tech article market
Luxury gym charges R$18,000 per month with promise of ‘complete well-being’
This new approach to travel “was born from a deep reflection on the centuries-old vacation model: excess”. “Too much food and drink, and not enough sleep in tourist-packed destinations,” explained Beth McGroarty, vice president of research at the Global Wellness Institute, a nonprofit organization, in an interview with Fortune. “It was a cliché because it was true: people came back feeling worse than when they left.”
Storylines calls itself a “blue zone at sea,” taking advantage of consumers’ desire to travel to become healthier and live longer—perhaps even more than 100 years—rather than getting carried away with the hype without thinking twice about it. .
“Global travelers understand that to enjoy traveling around the world it is necessary to have a certain level of health and fitness,” explains Alister Punton, CEO of Storylines. “They want to be able to walk the cobblestone streets of European cities, hike the Inca Trail and snorkel in the Red Sea. So it makes sense that longevity, well-being and tourism go hand in hand.”
Also on board: a 930-square-foot gym offering yoga classes, meditation sessions and personal trainers; smoothie bars; and an optimal aging center that offers bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, energy and libido-boosting treatments, as well as the previously mentioned IV infusion stations, where you can get everything from vitamins to chelation treatments that remove heavy metals like lead , from the bloodstream. (It’s important to keep in mind that some longevity offerings available while traveling, such as stem cell treatments and hyperbaric oxygen chambers, have not yet been widely tested or approved by the FDA for people who are generally healthy.)
So does this mean that traveling now means eliminating all-you-can-eat food and piña coladas by the pool?
This certainly isn’t for everyone, but it is for some: between 2020 and 2022, the number of people taking wellness trips increased by 30%, and the wellness tourism sector is expected to be worth $1 trillion by the year end of 2024, according to the Global Wellness Institute, which began monitoring this segment 15 years ago, around the same time that smartphone use began to grow. McGroarty believes this is no coincidence.
“People have simply become much more stressed, depressed and sick, and they are demanding travel experiences that help them heal,” he explains.
Today, this type of travel has become intertwined with the longevity market which, according to the Global Wellness Institute’s annual report, is rapidly expanding, whose value is valued at US$27 billion and which is one of the wellness sectors with the most grows. The itineraries—not just cruises, but also luxury resorts and vacation homes—promise an oasis where wellness spa meets biohacker, wherever that may be.
Such is the case with Estate, a joint venture between SBE Entertainment Group Chairman Sam Nazarian and self-help guru Tony Robbins, which is billed as “a revolutionary luxury residential and hospitality ecosystem anchored in the world of preventative medicine, of AI and Longevity”, which plans to launch 15 hotels and ten longevity centers by 2030. According to Bloomberg, the premise will be based on partnerships between preventative medicine clinics and anti-aging spas, adjacent to five-star restaurants and hotels, with the center of Fountain Life longevity, all from $1,000 per night.
“We are not building medical hotels, we are building luxury hotels, residences and urban clinics that differentiate themselves by their commitment to changing people’s lives,” says Nazarian in a press release.
Meanwhile, at Six Senses Ibiza, guests can venture into the RoseBar. Not to be confused with a late-night “dirty martini” spot, this is a longevity club that tests members’ biomarkers and offers personalized advice from a variety of health “coaches” on lifestyle, nutrition and exercises. It also houses a cold plunge, hyperbaric oxygen chamber, infrared sauna and intravenous infusion stations.
“You don’t have to commit to a full retreat. You can just schedule a 30-minute red light session, a cryotherapy booster or a restorative IV infusion to combat travel fatigue,” explains Talana Bestall, founding member of RoseBar. The goal is to empower you to choose exactly what your body needs, when it needs it.
The bar pays homage to holistic wellness measures and “combines the powers of science and spiritual wellness to improve humanity’s healthy life expectancy.” This is what the resort chain promises, whose director of well-being is Mark Hyman, the functional medicine doctor and celebrity longevity enthusiast. You can also take a deep dive into Hyman’s “Young Forever” program, which is a six-day detox to reverse aging, relieve stress, and learn how to flip your “longevity switches.”
Below are some examples of other luxury wellness retreats and their upscale offerings.
Intravenous infusion of four interventions
At the Four Seasons Resort Maui, guests can enjoy a variety of longevity-focused offerings that are more intense — and invasive — than the massages, gym memberships or facials typically associated with luxury travel.
For example, in partnership with the Next|Health longevity center you can get a four-intervention therapy with ozone, stem cells, exosomes and NAD+ for $44,000. And for the bargain price of $299, you can get a “Hangover IV,” a 30-minute detox treatment, or a “Gut Health IV.” free) to reduce inflammation.
200 data biomarkers
Canyon Ranch wellness and spa resort recently launched Longevity8, a four-day, $20,000 retreat in Tucson, Arizona, where stays begin with a blood draw and personalized medical consultation, followed by sleep screenings. and resistance assessments.
The hope is that guests will leave feeling refreshed — with more than 200 biomarkers being assessed — and a plan of action.
“Traditional medicine is not yet focused on prevention, so people who have the resources are looking to new destinations or medical wellness concierge programs to take control of their health before it becomes a problem,” says McGroarty.
Now presenting… the longevity school
Others, especially investors and venture capitalists, are interested in integrating longevity education into their travels. And for $70,000, longevity entrepreneur Peter Diamandis offers a five-day “Platinum Longevity Journey,” during which people learn from researchers the basics about optimizing sleep, nutrition and exercise, as well as new treatments and biohacks. He calls the program his “five-day, five-star deep dive into longevity.”
Although Diamandis has been organizing retreats for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs for more than a decade, the longevity-focused itinerary, which is now in its sixth year, has only recently taken off, says the entrepreneur. “People go because they want to solve a health problem that someone in their family is facing,” he explained to Fortune. “We personalize each participant’s trip, which involves interviewing everyone in advance to understand their expectations… demand and interest in this has grown significantly.”
Diamandis hypothesizes that the rise in longevity tourism stems from rapid innovation in what he considers a “healthy longevity renaissance,” an area where research has highlighted the power of the individual to improve their health outcomes. As a result, wealthy entrepreneurs are eager to lead the way in using data to improve lifestyle and health outcomes.
And as aging with health problems is no longer considered inevitable — at least for the privileged — more and more people are seeing vacation as the ideal opportunity to enhance their lifestyle choices. Whether it’s an IV infusion before dinner or Botox on the ship, people are redefining what it means to travel, and it’s becoming increasingly exclusive.
“I call this new super-medical, high-tech and even more expensive wellness market the new ‘hardcare’ wellness,” explains McGroarty. “Medical longevity programming is popping up in unexpected places.”