Omtrips

Omtrips Weekly · #7 · 5 October 2026

Omtrips Weekly, Edition 7: Wellness is now deciding where travelers book

This week the evidence caught up with the instinct. Hilton put numbers on something hosts have felt for years: the plunge pool, the quiet room and the garden are not extras, they are the reason someone chooses you. Elsewhere a Pritzker winner built a retreat around the Japanese idea of pre-illness, Wyndham launched a brand for slower stays, and Washington kept inching psychedelic therapy toward a real pathway.

The Big Story

Hilton asked 14,744 travelers what they want, and wellness decided the booking

Spa Business30 Sep 2026

Hilton's 2027 trends report, The Great Rebalance, surveyed 14,744 intending travelers across 14 countries, from the US and Brazil to Saudi Arabia, India, Japan and Australia. Water came first: 61 per cent said they are more likely to seek out water-based wellness while traveling, and 60 per cent are drawn to it more when it is shared with others. Twenty per cent would pick their accommodation for a sauna or steam room alone, 32 per cent would book specifically for a deep-rest space, 35 per cent for outdoor relaxation areas, and 34 per cent said a wellness trip had changed them. For hosts the lesson is practical: describe the water, the quiet and the open air as clearly as you describe the room.

Retreats

Minor Hotels is turning 340 acres of the Hunter Valley into Australia's largest resort wellness precinct

Spa Business5 Oct 2026

Avani Cypress Lakes Resort at Pokolbin will bring AvaniWell to Australia for the first time across 70 wellness suites, 26 treatment rooms, a magnesium pool, infrared saunas, outdoor cold plunge pools and ten Pilates reformers, alongside 204 rooms, an 18-hole golf course and an outdoor cinema. First facilities open this month, with full completion in Q3 2027. Craig Hooley, COO of Minor Hotels Australasia, is pitching it at resort guests, day visitors and locals rather than at guests willing to commit to a full retreat, which is a useful read on where mainstream demand is heading.

A Pritzker Prize winner designed Japan's retreat for the space before illness

Spa Business28 Sep 2026

Pasona Natureverse on Awaji Island, designed by Shigeru Ban, is built entirely around mibyo, the Japanese understanding of the continuum between health and disease. Fifty-seven rooms carry sensor-integrated beds and natural hot spring bathing, with a thalassotherapy spa and thalasso pool, a hammam, Michelin-starred dining and a 300m waterfront boardwalk. Guests choose Relax, Reset or Rebuild, and assessment begins ten days before check-in, which is a neat model for any host thinking about pre-arrival intake.

Wyndham launches Dolce Nova, a brand built for slower and more intentional stays

Sleeper25 Sep 2026

The new upper-upscale extension of Dolce Hotels & Resorts is organized around five touchpoints, among them Restore & Revive for spa, wellness and fitness, and Rest & Retreat for rooms and suites. Wyndham is aiming it at travelers who want a deeper sense of place and is already in multiple conversations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in a lifestyle segment it expects to nearly double by 2034. When the big groups start naming brands after slowness, the independents who have been doing it all along have a story to tell.

Plant Medicine & Psychedelic Research

The FDA is asking the field how ibogaine trials should actually be designed

Marijuana Moment5 Oct 2026

A request for information in the Federal Register seeks comment on four questions: which patients to study, dosing protocols with starting doses at or below 10 mg/kg, monitoring for cardiac and neurologic events, and ethical oversight including informed consent. Comments close on 20 November 2026. The agency says existing ibogaine research carries significant limitations and an uncertain benefit-risk profile, and it will not accept comments on legalization, scheduling or religious use.

Congress's bipartisan psychedelics caucus publishes its roadmap for therapeutic access

Marijuana Moment1 Oct 2026

The Psychedelics Advancing Therapies Caucus, co-chaired by Representatives Jack Bergman and Lou Correa, released a white paper synthesizing stakeholder input on psilocybin, ibogaine and DMT. It calls for federal guidelines, multiple credentialing pathways for providers, a national adverse-event monitoring system, insurance coverage, explicit protection for Indigenous and religious entheogenic practice, and guardrails against over-commercialization. Correa was careful to note that psychedelics are not a cure-all.

Portland makes personal psychedelic use its lowest law enforcement priority

Marijuana Moment30 Sep 2026

Ordinance 2026-186 passed unanimously, covering personal use, cultivation and non-commercial sharing of psilocybin mushrooms and ayahuasca. Peyote is explicitly excluded to protect the endangered plant and Native American religious practice. Commercial sales stay prohibited and impaired-driving and workplace rules are untouched, so this is about reducing fear of arrest rather than opening a market.

Psychedelic Alpha's Q3 briefing maps where the field actually stands

Psychedelic Alpha2 Oct 2026

Editor Josh Hardman's quarterly review pulls together Definium's clinical readouts, federal regulatory meetings, academic research and the quarter's policy shifts, then sets out what to watch next. Worth bookmarking if you ever field questions from guests about what is legal, where, and on what evidence.

New Stays

The Hoxton takes its second German address to Hamburg's Alter Wall

Sleeper2 Oct 2026

Opening in summer 2027 inside a 1950s building in the Nikolaiviertel, the 188-room hotel gets interiors by Swedish studio Stylt Trampoli, a Mediterranean ground-floor restaurant, an all-day lobby bar and a rooftop seafood restaurant looking out at the Elbphilharmonie. Ennismore Europe is developing it with The Chocolate on the Pillow Group.

Delano lands on Italy's Adriatic coast with a wellness heart

Sleeper1 Oct 2026

Delano Puglia will open in Monopoli in 2028 with 76 rooms including 13 suites, a Paris Society restaurant, two pool bars and a reimagined Rose Bar. The wellness offer, The Source by Delano, spans movement spaces, pools and programming. Ennismore is building it with LIMM and Società Rinascimento Valori.

Kimpton heads to Rome, and brings a dormant theatre back to life

Sleeper30 Sep 2026

The 114-room conversion near Via Veneto is due in 2029 and will restore an existing theatre inside the building as a multifunctional arts and events venue, alongside a rooftop bar and restaurant, an internal courtyard and wellness facilities. It is Kimpton's second Italian address after Villa Miramare in Taormina, funded through Castello Sgr's Rome Hotel Development Fund.

Anantara Siam Bangkok reopens after a US$50m rebuild, with a sports club to match

Sleeper28 Sep 2026

All 335 rooms, suites and villas have been redesigned in teak, silk and marble, with new Garden Pool Suites and Villas and a two-bedroom Jim Thompson Explorer Suite. The Anantara Spa has been rebuilt and joined by the Siam Sports Club: a Technogym fitness floor, a Pilates studio and an outdoor zone with a Muay Thai ring and a rock-climbing wall. Paiboon Suwannakudt's 100m hand-painted mural and the 19 Heavens in Thai Thought ceiling panels stay exactly where they are.

Industry & Destinations

Kerzner creates a global wellness and longevity role and hands it to Robert Jeffers

Spa Business2 Oct 2026

Jeffers moves up from director of wellness at Atlantis The Palm to global director of wellness and longevity across One&Only, Atlantis, Siro and Rare Finds, with a brief that reaches into new-build planning, renovations and repositioning. CEO Philippe Zuber framed the shift in one line: wellness and longevity have moved from amenity to expectation for the luxury traveler.

Hyatt names its first ever Chief Creative Officer

Sleeper30 Sep 2026

Amar Lalvani takes the new post with immediate effect while continuing to lead Hyatt's Lifestyle Group, which includes The Standard and Bunkhouse Hotels. He joined in 2024 when Hyatt acquired Standard International, having previously led W Hotels' global development. His mandate is brand distinctiveness through design, experience and culture across the whole portfolio.

UK spas join a cross-sector push to halve VAT on personal care

Spa Business28 Sep 2026

The UK Spa Association has signed on to One Voice alongside the British Beauty Council and the British Hair Consortium, asking the Chancellor to cut VAT on hairdressing, beauty, spa and aesthetics services from 20 per cent to 10 per cent. CBI Economics modeling suggests the change could generate around £766 million, roughly US$1.02 billion, in extra receipts by 2030. The open letter landed ahead of the 28 October Budget.

ISPA sets its 2027 keynote lineup, under the banner Rise

Spa Business29 Sep 2026

The conference runs 3 to 5 March 2027 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. IT Cosmetics founder Jamie Kern Lima opens on self-worth and leadership, trial lawyer and author Jefferson Fisher follows on clarity in difficult conversations, and Zack Kass closes on business transformation and the future of work. The program leans into hiring, retention and leading through change, which is the quiet crisis in most spa and retreat teams right now.

Indonesia's hospitality leaders make the business case for investing in nature

TTG Asia5 Oct 2026

At a Jakarta panel convened by Artotel Group, The Bimasena and Bumiterra, operators argued that nature investment has graduated from corporate social responsibility to straightforward risk management, with climate disruption already hitting food supply chains. Artotel has committed a hectare to reforestation in West Kalimantan and points to utility savings from the same operational changes. Speakers included Erastus Radjimin of Artotel, Matt Leggett of Terratai and Adisti Ikayanti of MAKA Group.

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