Recovery wellness at campsites?

Health and recovery as an integral part of positioning

I recently read a column on hotel trends that talked about the rise of ice baths and water sommeliers. What struck me most: themes that are now emphatically landing in the hotel industry have been part of the playing field in outdoor hospitality for much longer.

One trend in particular stood out: recovery wellness, in which you see hotels increasingly developing services for guests who are tired, struggling with jet lag, experiencing headaches or seeking help for sleep and focus. A well-known example, of course, is Mount Med Resort in Austria, a venue I have been following for some time now, where health and recovery are integral to its positioning.

Taking a step back in history, one sees that this development is less new than it seems. Centuries ago, people who wanted to recover were sent to the sea or the mountains. Fresh air, rest, rhythm and nature as medicine. In that sense, this trend is not emerging, but returning in a new, professionalised form. And that is exactly where hotel management and outdoor hospitality meet.

Nature, peace and recovery

Glampings, country resorts, holiday farms, outdoor hotels and country estates (yes... these days it's no longer called camping!) are pre-eminent places where nature, tranquillity and recovery come together. Yet for a long time, many recreation parks had a different image: massive, focused on passive entertainment, functional. That narrative did not match the growing need for conscious living, re-energising with nature and working on a ‘better version’ of yourself. 

Especially after COVID, this movement visibly accelerated. Health and mental balance took centre stage. Initially, temporary initiatives emerged: pop-up retreats at campsites, breathing weekends in safari tents, mobile saunas at the edge of the woods as an extra service. Entrepreneurs were looking for relevance at a time when well-being was not a luxury

What started as an experiment has now grown into mature concept development with clear positioning and investment structures. 

The classic leisure park with swimming pool and entertainment is increasingly giving way to small-scale resorts where tranquillity, nature and health are the starting point. The guest does not just book an accommodation, but a context.

Private wellness in every villa

And the market is already booming. At Nala Village near Zutphen, for example, a new park will soon be created, where it is all about ‘reconnecting to nature’, with private wellness in each villa and an ecologically designed landscape. The programme (from silence spots to recovery-oriented activities) is at the heart of the stay.

And at Zomerlicht, near Balkbrug, a community-like campsite is developing with yoga, meditation and cabins in the greenery, where meeting and conscious living are central. On the Veluwe, Marber Veluwe, developed by Danny Paerl, positions itself with high-quality architecture in the middle of the landscape, focusing on tranquillity and quality.

Finally, in Flevoland - a province with a good profile on this subject and the advantage of being ‘near’ the Randstad - we see a similar concentration and multiple initiatives. At Terra Wolde, you can eat from its own vegetable garden and then do supping or yoga sessions, Resort de Parel van Horsterwold puts nature and silence as a supporting value, and Landgoed Energy Up precisely builds around energy restoration, movement and vitality.

Integral part

What is becoming visible here is a mature market around health retreats, yoga retreats and nature retreats. Health does not function as an add-on, but as an integral part of the business model. Architecture, programming, landscape, food and daily rhythm are designed in conjunction, shifting the revenue model from ‘overnight stay’ to ‘transformation’. In my view, this is how the concept of outdoor hospitality and hotel management are moving ever closer together. 

The next few years will reveal who knows how to translate this movement most sharply into a distinctive concept. Will recovery wellness become a growing market? And will we soon see more and more ‘hotel and wellness’ combined with outdoor? We will see and keep an eye on it.