Wellness Tourism in Dubai: The Emergence of Mindfulness and Luxury Health Retreats

Introduction:

The concept of tourism has evolved over the years quite radically and has of late come to connote a multitude of strands of other purposes as well. For Gen Z and millennials, tourism has long ceased to be a mere stay at a mountain resort or a visit to an offbeat place. The trajectory of expectation for these new-age travellers has broadened immeasurably in its scope.

The new age travellers are viewing travelling as more of an opportunity for a holistic change. They want to embrace a routine that caters to not just wanderlust but something that takes comprehensive care of their mind as well as their body.

However, wellness tourism is not the sum total of gym exercise or having to gorge on a plateful of classic Greek salad merely. As the absence of disease does not simply amount to having a toned-up body and a positive frame of mind, equally wellness tourism is something much more than gym and salad.

Buoyed by the impetus of the new-age travel enthusiasts, wellness tourism now caters to a 360-degree holistic mind-body mix that takes both a macro as well micro approach to your entire being.  

Dubai tourism has always been a trailblazer that never shied away from experimenting the avant-garde techniques and technology so that the precept of tourism gets a radical redo in all its senses and colours. Wellness tourism in Dubai is now a serious industry that offers much more kaleidoscopic offerings and can mean these:

• Physical Wellness
• Mental Wellness
• Emotional Wellness
• Nutritional Wellness
• Spiritual Wellness
• Unique Dubai Experiences

Spa Days in the Sky: Luxury Wellness with a View:

Spa tourism in Dubai has injected and ignited a fresh sense of purpose within the generic domain of tours and travelling. These luxury spas are reinventing wellness tourism even as they offer an eclectic fusion of ancient ingredients and cutting-edge technologies to their high-heeled clientele.

Talise Spa, Burj Al Arab: Booking this spa necessarily means ticking off a major tourist landmark in Dubai itself. Dubbed as the only seven-star hotel in Dubai, the Talise Spa at Burj Al Arab invites and entices you to a complete sense of decadence and indulgence.

This spa brings to the table a highly trained pool of professionals who offer high-end products such as La Prairie, Aromatherapy Associates, QMS and Carol Joy. Along with that, there is the skin-firming caviar facial that can leave your skin completely rejuvenated.

Perched 125 metres high above the ground, you are in for an experience of your lifetime at Talise Spa, should you book a session with this spa. You can leave the hustle and bustle of the world behind only to reconnect with your inner voice here at this spa.

AWAKEN Spa, Atlantis The Royal: The AWAKEN is the latest entrant in the rarified Dubai sky of opulence and grandeur. However, the Spa is complete with commensurate luxury that will tantalize and titillate you to a hitherto unknown ambience of pomp and pleasure.

This spa is replete with zen-like treatment rooms and has many state-of-the-art facilities like:

•  Meditation pavilion
• Hammam sensorium
• Halotherapy salt cave
• Snow fountain
• Chromotherapy
• Charcoal sauna

Anantara Spa, Anantara The Palm Resort: This spa is a wonderful confluence of Arabian elusiveness with exotic Thai techniques that will leave you utterly spoilt for indulgence. Again, this facility is also home to several luxury treatments with some being available only at this facility also. For example, hydrotherapy.

Mindfulness in the Desert: Retreats Designed to Transform:

Combining the arid desert wilderness with finer aesthetics of personal wellness and comfort comes a small, select coterie of desert retreats that facilitate your relaxed rejuvenation with utmost tranquillity. Such facilities have specialised the art of keeping you cool even in the face of desert extremities. For example:

Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa: Al Maha offers a group of 42 private villas that specialise in the art and craft of seclusion and disconnect. This is a place that is not only located in an oasis of lush palm groves but also offers an exceptional personalised luxury that is next to none. Set a rendezvous with this place and awaken with a newer, refreshed you.

Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa: Cocooned in the gleaming sand dunes, Bab Al Shams resort is a prominent point of visit for all those travellers who want to revel in the desert and enjoy it with a decided note of difference. This facility offers an array of activities and other allied things among others. They are:

• Enjoy a Spa Session
• Go for Desert Activities
• Take a Nature Walk
• Archery
• Kids Club & Pool
• Enjoy different cuisines

Along with the clutch of treatment and wellness programmes that these resorts and retreats offer, there are also facilities for mindfulness programmes amidst this desert oasis called Dubai. These mindfulness retreats deliver a comprehensive package that redefines the very concept of personalised comfort, luxury and care.

The Retreat MGallery Palm Dubai: The retreat offers a one-of-a-kind experience to visitors in many forms. In line with its stated wellness policy, this facility does not serve alcohol but rather offers its expertise for detoxification activities among other things. Various personalised programmes offered in The Retreat MGallery Palm Dubai are:

•     Signature spa treatments

•     Rejuvenating cryotherapy
•     Detoxifying facials
•     Traditional Hammam

Digital Detox Programmes:

Set amidst a rising crescendo of din and bustle, constant connectedness and professional pressures, the growing need to embrace a digital detox becomes paramount. The need to disconnect from an array of digital gadgets that eat away the vitals of our bodies and take a mounting toll on our minds cannot be understated.

Maintaining a fine balance and harmony has thus become a crucial juggling act of our life and Dubai is no exception to this either. Digital Detox Initiatives in Dubai are:

•      Digital Detox Challenges and Campaigns by the celebrities
•      Tech-Free Zones in Public Spaces
•      Wellness Retreats in the Desert
•      Corporate Wellness Programs

Some of the prominent hotels and resorts that offer the digital detox programme are:

•     Anantara Palm Jumeirah Resort
•     The Palm Jumeirah Hotel
•     Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach
•     Atlantis The Palm
•     Jumeirah Beach Hotel

Dubai Fitness Challenge:

One of the most exciting activities in the Dubai calendar for the city fitness fanatics is the annual Dubai Fitness Challenge (DFC) which will kickstart this year on 26th October and finish on 24th November. This annual fitness carnival for fitness fanatics invites all the contestants to undertake 30 minutes of activity each day for 30 days. With an activity-laden calendar of free classes, sporting events and group workout sessions, DFC will move you with its activities for sure.

Pamper Your Palate: Gourmet Wellness Cuisine:

Local cuisine bears an indelible imprint of local culture and offers a riveting study of diversity and tastes especially to the outsiders. Many restaurants in Dubai support the farm-to-table menu and locally sourced organic produce.

The farm-to-table is a culinary concept that supports locally sourced organic produce, advances the cause of sustainability and supports local farmers and producers. By actively supporting this trend, restaurants help to build a more inclusive environment of growth and equitable distribution of wealth. Some of the local Dubai restaurants that support the farm-to-table concept are:

• The Farm Restaurant, Al Barari
• Alif Café
• Farmhouse: Cocktails & Cuisine
• The Knot
• Farm City Dubai
• 21grams
• Local House Restaurant
• Maison Mathis | Arabian Ranches

Conclusion:

Dubai brings to the table a compelling and varied offering that is wrapped in a layer of ultra-sophisticated modern aesthetics that whets your hedonistic taste buds. Dubai has got something incredible for everybody. Whether you are an ultra-modern illustrator, a torch-bearer of pure wanderlust or someone in quest of a chimerical illusion, Dubai will enthral you for sure and leave you gobsmacked!

Why wait and waste? Get ready to discover your own reason to visit and travel to Dubai. Better embark on the voyage without a reason and let Dubai deliver you an unforgettable reason or two that stays with you for an eternity.