5 Wellness Trends Set To Take Over 2025

It’s safe to say the UK’s wellness market is booming. According to a new report from the Global Wellness Institute, the UK has ranked number one for growth in its wellness market since 2019 – in 2022, the industry brought in $224 billion in sales, the fifth highest in the world. Researchers also described British companies as ‘innovators’ in the spa, hospitality, fitness and other wellbeing sectors. So which trends will we be spearheading next year? Here are five key wellness trends for 2025, set to feature in this year’s Global Wellness Summit, taking place at The Old Course Hotel in St. Andrew’s, Scotland in November.

2025 Trends: What’s Big In Wellness Right Now?

1. Deeper, More Specific Wellness Retreats

Retreats have been a key part of the wellness world for many years now, but nowadays experiences are becoming more tailored to specific needs. Menspedition Pilgrimages in Wales, for instance, focuses on male wellness with activities like mountain hiking and cold plunges, plus encourages conversations surrounding masculinity and emotions. The Rewire Retreat, meanwhile, offers a phone-free space for teenage girls, with a programme that includes breathwork, foraging, campfires and wild walks. There’s also Heartbreak Hotel on the Norfolk coast, designed for women who have experienced breakups or trauma, and the Menopause Health Reset at Combe Grove in Bath, a one-week retreat for those experiencing debilitating symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. 

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2. Social & Wild Waters

Water wellness is one of the biggest trends right now. Wild swimming continues to dominate the health space, led by the UK, which is home to over 400 sites – with 27 new locations designated as bathing waters this year. There has also been an influx in community saunas and social bathhouses, which are particularly popular with younger generations, who are increasingly looking for places to socialise outside of the pub. Wild saunas are especially big in Scotland, where outdoor wellness centres are popping up all over the coastline: visitors go for chilly dips in the sea before warming up in Nordic-style saunas. The trend has also made its way to London: Hackney Community Sauna is particularly popular, and runs a programme of events such as sound baths and queer poetry nights. Manchester, meanwhile, will soon welcome a giant new wellness complex called Therme, complete with dozens of swimming pools.

3. Wellness Policy

The UK is leading wellness policy, along with Singapore, according to the Global Wellness Institute’s report. Social prescribing, a way of helping people improve their mental and physical health through non-clinical services such as activities and groups, continues to be a big part of medical care. In 2022, NHS England launched a three-year pilot to experiment with social prescriptions for walking and cycling, and the country spends $3.5 billion on public exercise and sporting facilities. A recent government-backed project designed to help people in England connect with nature, meanwhile, has led to improvements in mental health. This saw more than 8,000 people helped to take part in activities like community gardening, tree planting and nature walks, with results showing levels of anxiety fell significantly.

Lanserhof at the Arts Club

4. Longevity

Longevity is set to be one of the biggest topics at the 2024 Global Wellness Summit – with high-tech clinics described as the fastest-growing business sector in wellness. Biohacking, a broad term used to describe the practice of altering the body’s ability to function at peak performance, is a buzzword in the health space, popping up everywhere from spa menus to supplements. The trend is spearheaded by places like the world-famous Lanserhof, which specialises in preventative medicine, but we’re also seeing a spate of new clinics launching. The futuristic HUM2N London’s Chelsea offers a therapy called ‘Superhuman Protocol’: four treatments designed to strengthen your immune system and boost your energy (think NAD+ drips and hyperbaric oxygen chambers). There’s also the new four-storey wellness club Surenne at the Emory Hotel, where members can get everything from VO2 Max testing to next-gen medical diagnostics such as microbiome testing.

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5. The Modern Pilgrimage

Hiking is back in vogue – helped in part by TikTok, which has popularised big walks like the Seven Sisters trail (and the whole #gorpcore trend, ensuring stylish rambling). Walking clubs have also been a big wellness trend this year, with searches for ‘local walking groups’ up by 300 per cent, and forecasted to grow in 2025. But people aren’t stopping at one-day hikes: revitalised pilgrimage trails are luring new generations into the most ancient form of travel. The UK is trailblazing the trend with offerings like the new Wexford-Pembrokeshire Pilgrim Way, a 160-mile trail starting in Wexford, Ireland and ending in St. David’s, Wales. These slow, epic walks often have a historic or spiritual element, and offer an antidote to the fast past of modern life – plus a wellbeing-focused alternative to fly-and-flop beach holidays.