Women-focused resorts the next big thing in wellness

In the US$6.3 trillion (S$8.2 trillion) world of wellness, catering to women is the lowest-hanging fruit on the tree.

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Yet, women's wellness is an area that has historically been underfunded and underserved.

In the US, women were rarely included in clinical trials before 1993, and in 2020, only 5 per cent of global research and development funding was allocated to women's health research.

Even spokespeople for the Global Wellness Institute, the largest research organisation dedicated to tracking the industry, recognise their failure to collect data on what women need or want from the wellness space. They say they have found it more logical to focus on fitness and longevity in the past.

Enter Canyon Ranch, the OG of American wellness retreats, founded in 1979. In September 2026, it plans to unveil its third location on the outskirts of Austin, an ambitious 243ha ranch whose primary focus will be women's wellness.

Two-thirds of the brand's guests are women, says chief executive officer Mark Rivers, referring to his existing resorts in Lenox, Massachusetts and Tucson, Arizona.

Yet, that same demographic, he says, "is misunderstood and swallowed in general healthcare".

By focusing almost entirely on relaxation and beauty, yoga retreats and boot camps, the spa industrial complex is missing a massive part of what women care about: the physiological changes women face in different stages of their life.

It is a gap that companies such as Canyon Ranch have been racing to address in recent years as people's interest in wellness - and willingness to invest in it - has skyrocketed.

To date, their efforts have typically manifested as the occasional treatment or themed retreat. There is still not a single wellness resort making women's health its calling card.