Why MENA is becoming the world's wellness investment capital

A decade ago, wellness was a hotel spa and a green juice at the breakfast buffet. Today, the global wellness economy stands at $6.8 trillion and is forecast to reach $9.8 trillion by 2029 (Global Wellness Institute, 2025). 

At that scale, wellness outranks the green economy ($5.1 trillion), global IT ($5.3 trillion), and sits at nearly four times the size of the pharmaceutical industry ($1.8 trillion). The investors, developers, operators, and suppliers who understood this early are already several steps ahead. 

MENA is leading, not following 

The UAE is now one of the fastest-growing wellness markets globally, and the fastest-growing in MENA since 2019, ahead of every other country in the world, according to GWI’s January 2026 Country Rankings report (Global Wellness Institute, 2026). That is not a position the market widely predicted five years ago. 

The UAE’s wellness tourism has grown at 23.5% annually and is now valued at $40.8 billion (Global Wellness Institute, 2025), making it the fastest-growing wellness market in the region. 

Across MENA, wellness has moved out of the optional column and into the structural planning stage of developments that have not yet broken ground. 

Wellness is a revenue line, not an amenity 

Hotels with comprehensive wellness offerings generate TRevPAR that is 108% higher than properties with no wellness services, according to the 2025 Wellness Real Estate Report by HotStats and RLA Global. Wellness-oriented properties also show lower volatility in gross operating profit across market cycles (HotStats, 2025). 

Guest retention reinforces the commercial case. Guests are measurably more likely to return to hotels that offer personalised wellness services. In a market where repeat patronage is among the most valuable metrics a property can hold, wellness operates as a retention strategy, not a cost centre. 

Wellness-driven resorts and experience-focused urban properties are emerging as distinct product categories across MENA development plans for 2026. Six Senses The Palm Dubai, expected to open on the West Crescent of Palm Jumeirah with a 60,000 sq ft wellness and social club at its core, is among the most prominent examples of this shift. Similarly, Clinique La Prairie Health Resort (AMAALA) will bring its world-renowned Swiss expertise in preventative medicine and longevity to the Red Sea, spanning 36,115 square metres and positioning itself as a premier health and wellness retreat ahead of its planned Q4 2026 opening. Operators and developers across the region are actively sourcing wellness suppliers who can deliver on both guest experience and technical specification. 

Beyond hotels: a cross-sector movement 

The growth is not contained to hospitality. Private wellness clinics, medical centres, standalone spas, fitness concepts, and hospitals integrating preventative care are all expanding across MENA. This is a sector-wide movement, not a hotel amenity trend. This shift is evident in projects such as Olympia Resort Abu Dhabi on Hudayriyat Island, Abu Dhabi, a newly announced performance-led destination that combines sport, recovery and leisure through advanced training facilities, recovery lounges, dedicated running and cycling tracks, and hypoxic guest rooms designed for high-altitude conditioning. Similarly, SHA Emirates, scheduled to open in 2027 in Al Jurf between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, will extend the internationally recognised SHA Wellness model beyond hospitality, integrating luxury residences, organic nutrition, preventative healthcare and longevity programmes into a holistic wellness community. Together, these developments demonstrate how wellness is evolving into a standalone investment category spanning hospitality, healthcare, residential and lifestyle sectors. 

What makes MENA’s wellness growth distinctive is not just the pace. It is the character. The ‘Sovereign Wellness’ trend is gaining traction as operators move away from imported formats toward offerings that carry cultural authenticity and premium positioning. The Anantara Spa at Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort in Abu Dhabi, set deep in the Empty Quarter, illustrates the direction, a wellness programme built around Bedouin healing traditions, locally sourced desert botanicals, and techniques drawn from Emirati heritage. This creates a distinct sourcing opportunity for suppliers who understand the regional context and the increasingly refined expectations of the wellness consumer. International operators are drawing the same conclusion from a different direction.  

Wynn Al Marjan Island, scheduled to open in Ras Al Khaimah in spring 2027, incorporates a five-star spa as a foundational pillar of its 148-acre integrated resort, positioned alongside gaming, dining, and entertainment as a primary draw rather than an amenity. In Dubai, SIRO One Za’abeel, Kerzner International’s fitness and recovery brand opened in 2024, structures its entire offer around five pillars: nutrition, fitness, sleep, recovery, and mindfulness. There is no separation between the hotel and the wellness programme. 

These projects point to the same conclusion: at this level of capital commitment, wellness is a pre-design decision. 

Wellness is now written into real estate 

Nowhere is wellness more visibly embedded in the investment thesis than in real estate. Savills research shows buyers pay an average premium of 30% for branded homes over comparable properties, rising to over 50% in emerging markets (Savills, 2022). 

Master-planned wellbeing communities are redefining residential development in the UAE. Emaar’s The Heights Country Club and Wellness spans 81 million square feet in Dubai with a project value of AED 55 billion, anchored by a dedicated wellness hub, cycling and jogging tracks, and green corridors throughout. 

In branded residences, the wellness offer has become the product itself. Equinox Resort and Residences AMAALA, Saudi Arabia, located within Triple Bay at AMAALA on the Red Sea, is slated for opening between 2026 and 2027 and will serve as a flagship wellness destination within Saudi Arabia’s broader giga-project developments. Anchoring AMAALA’s strong focus on integrative medical and sports-led wellness, the project will combine a high-performance Equinox resort with fully serviced luxury residences, designed to merge luxury hospitality with advanced fitness, recovery, and longevity-driven living. Six Senses Residences Dubai Marina, scheduled for 2028, extends the same model and is set to become the world’s tallest residential tower on completion. For buyers in both projects, the wellness infrastructure is the core of the brief. 

Wellness real estate is the single fastest-growing segment within the global wellness economy, expanding at 19.5% annually between 2019 and 2024. In MENA, that trajectory is steeper still: MENA wellness real estate is growing at 22.6% annually, the second fastest rate globally (Global Wellness Institute, 2025). 

The window for early positioning is now 

Across hospitality, healthcare, fitness, and real estate, wellness has stopped being a category and started being a baseline. The developers, operators, and procurement teams building MENA’s next generation of hotels, residences, and mixed-use destinations are not asking whether to include it. They are deciding who delivers it and at what specification. 

The fastest-growing format within this shift may be eco-luxury and glamping, where the wellness rationale is built into the product from the outset rather than added to it. Basiqat by Mantis (Al Uyaynah), scheduled to open in Q4 2026 just 40 minutes from Riyadh, exemplifies this approach with a desert-luxury retreat comprising 218 keys that blend traditional Najdi-inspired architecture with desert tents, contemporary pool villas, and a heritage-style souk, creating an immersive environment rooted in culture, nature, and wellbeing.  

Similarly, Caravan Hatta by Our Habitas, which opened in December 2025 in Dubai’s Hajar Mountains, programmes its 50 airstream units around restoration: guests have access to a barrel sauna, cold plunge, outdoor hot tub, sound healing, yoga, and meditation sessions set within the mountain landscape. 

In Sharjah, Mleiha National Park‘s premium glamping operation pairs luxury desert tenting with astronomy nights, low-light-pollution stargazing events, and a programme of mindfulness-aligned outdoor experiences.  

In these cases, the wellness offer is the product, not an amenity attached to it. 

Specification decisions for many of these projects are being made now, ahead of construction timelines. The suppliers, designers, and operators who engage early are the ones shaping what gets built. The rest will be responding to decisions that have already been made.