{"id":332825,"date":"2025-10-26T02:16:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T02:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/332825\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T02:16:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T02:16:32","slug":"women-focused-resorts-are-the-next-big-thing-in-wellness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/332825\/","title":{"rendered":"Women-focused resorts are the next big thing in wellness"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the $6.3 trillion world of wellness, catering to women is the lowest-hanging fruit on the tree. Yet women\u2019s wellness is an area that\u2019s historically been underfunded and underserved. In the U.S., women were rarely included in clinical trials before 1993, and in 2020, only 5% of global research and development funding was allocated to women\u2019s health research.<\/p>\n

Even spokespeople for the Global Wellness Institute, the largest research organization dedicated to tracking the industry, recognize their failure to collect data on what women need or want from the wellness space; they say they\u2019ve found it more logical to focus on fitness and longevity in the past.<\/p>\n

Enter Fort Worth-based Canyon Ranch<\/a>, the OG of American wellness retreats, founded in 1979. In September 2026, it plans to unveil its third location on the outskirts of Austin<\/a>, an ambitious 600-acre ranch whose primary focus will be women\u2019s wellness.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds of the brand\u2019s guests are women, says Chief Executive Officer Mark Rivers, referring to his existing resorts in Lenox, Mass., and Tucson, Ariz. Yet that same demographic, he says, \u201cis misunderstood and swallowed in general health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

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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\u2019s a gap that companies such as Canyon Ranch have been racing to address in recent years as people\u2019s interest in wellness \u2014 and willingness to invest in it \u2014 has skyrocketed. To date, their efforts have typically manifested as the occasional treatment or themed retreat; there still isn\u2019t a single wellness resort making women\u2019s health their calling card.<\/p>\n

\"Renderings<\/p>\n

Renderings of the new residential section of the Canyon Ranch Austin wellness resort set to open in 2026. The property is being built by Fort Worth-based Canyon Ranch.<\/p>\n

moka-studio<\/p>\n

The very symptoms that women\u2019s wellness retreats address \u2014 hot flashes, vaginal dryness, hair loss \u2014 have long felt too taboo to name out loud, much less put on a marquee. But lately the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause have become buzzy talk show fodder and the subjects of bestselling books. Everyone from Oprah and Drew Barrymore to Michelle Obama and Naomi Watts, who has her own menopause health product line, is now openly talking about the stage in a woman\u2019s life that for decades was vaguely referred to as \u201cthe change.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 2030 the world population of menopausal and postmenopausal women is projected to increase 9%, to 1.2 billion, with a forecast market size of $24.4 billion. Spas will have to cater to this powerful market or risk getting left behind. It\u2019s no wonder that wellness industry pioneers including SHA Wellness in Mexico and Spain, Ananda in the Himalayas and Kamalaya resort in Koh Samui, Thailand, now offer programs to address fertility, pelvic floor dysfunction and more. And the growing discourse around these issues for women has made it easier for men to admit to similar concerns too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rise in awareness around the gender health gap \u2014 particularly the lack of persistent data on female hormones and health \u2014 has helped normalize conversations that were long overdue,\u201d says Anna Bjurstam, head of wellness at Thailand-based Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas, which earlier this year introduced a female wellness pilot program in partnership with women\u2019s health expert Dr. Mindy Pelz. \u201cLet\u2019s face it, the wellness industry has historically centered on weight loss and aesthetics. But women want to feel good, not just look good. What we\u2019re seeing now is a shift toward empowerment, education and energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canyon Ranch\u2019s Rivers claims that his resort, however, will be the industry\u2019s first dedicated women\u2019s wellness practice. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of noise in the space, but we\u2019re actually making an investment in it,\u201d he tells Bloomberg News. To wit, Canyon Ranch Austin is a sizable investment. It had previously been reported to be costing approximately $122 million. Now Rivers confirms the price tag is actually reaching $500 million, of which $50 million will be devoted to the largest spa in Texas, clocking in at 40,000 square feet with 37 treatment rooms.<\/p>\n

\"Trevor<\/p>\n

Trevor Rees-Jones stands outside at his Party Barn at his Cook Canyon ranch in 2014, when he surprised guests with a performance by Toby Keith.<\/p>\n

When Canyon Ranch opened in Tucson in the \u201970s, it was a departure from the era\u2019s trendy, weight-loss-focused \u201cfat farms.\u201d From the start, the brand worked with nutritionists and fitness experts to offer a lifestyle-driven approach to well-being. \u201cWe are not a hospital or medical clinic,\u201d Rivers says. \u201cWe are a resort focused on health as a lifestyle choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a global leader for all things longevity. Since its inception, the brand says it\u2019s welcomed 1 million guests and curated a team of board-certified medical doctors including Jennifer Wagner, a medical adviser to the U.S. Olympic Committee, and Richard Carmona, former U.S. surgeon general.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf women have been short-sold by the medical world, I also feel like they have been getting short-sold by the wellness space,\u201d says Beth McGroarty, director of research for the Global Wellness Institute, who has no affiliation with Canyon Ranch\u2019s forthcoming resort but considers it to be groundbreaking in its ambitions. \u201cWe suddenly saw all of these menopause programs, but many are rooted in pampering, community and celebrity-driven supplements. Canyon Ranch is adding the medical piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Austin will focus on women\u2019s health, Tucson will be considered Canyon Ranch\u2019s hub for all things longevity and the Lenox location, in Massachusetts\u2019 Berkshire Mountains, will tackle burnout. Stays at the Austin outpost will be priced from $1,400 per person, per night \u2014 including pickleball clinics, infrared sauna sessions and wine-paired tasting menus. (That price is about $200 more per night than its siblings charge, and higher yet than its global competitors, though Canyon Ranch rates cover lots of classes and programs that other wellness resorts charge for \u00e0 la carte.)<\/p>\n

Canyon Ranch Austin is the first resort the company is building from scratch; the others fill historic, retrofitted buildings. Located a little less than an hour from downtown in rural-feeling Spicewood, the project is being designed by award-winning architecture firm Lake Flato. It will have 141 hotel rooms, 134 residences, six racquet sports courts, two pools and an outdoor cooking studio centered around grilling. The onsite female health facility, called the Women\u2019s Wellness Collective at Canyon Ranch Austin, will address the evolving needs of women from their 30s onward; it will cover a wide range of health concerns including sleep, nutrition, postpartum depression and midlife beauty.<\/p>\n

Men will be welcome too. Blood work, bone density scans, sleep screenings and other medical tests will all be recommended or prescribed according to gender, age and individualized health concerns; the same will apply to the fitness offerings.<\/p>\n

In a state that so heavily polices fertility medicine<\/a>, Canyon Ranch has decided not to include reproductive health in its offerings and will not be staffed with OB-GYNs. But the brand\u2019s other properties have a high volume of babymooners, and Rivers says the Austin location will offer prenatal massages and pre- and postbirth body work. Prescription-based hormone replacement therapy will also be available.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that beauty will be an afterthought. Hair thinning and skin elasticity are examples that beauty and women\u2019s wellness go hand in hand, Rivers argues, and says that the spa will be prepared to deal with these topics holistically.<\/p>\n

The intention is also to give guests tools and techniques that they can carry home, but Canyon Ranch also says it hopes that some people will want to live the Canyon Ranch life for good. Like many of its peers, it\u2019s currently offering two- and three-bedroom homes for sale, from $3.4 million, alongside the new Austin resort. Each residence is kitted out with wellness features such as saunas, cold plunges, recovery lockers stocked with massage guns and foam rollers, and stargazing perches with NASA-grade telescopes \u2014 plus complimentary access to the spa and the resort\u2019s 35-plus daily activities.<\/p>\n

That, in some ways, paints another version of the future of wellness resorts, in which people no longer vacation to establish healthy habits but relocate for them. At the very least, it\u2019s a secondary strategy that plays to either gender.<\/p>\n

– Jen Murphy for Bloomberg<\/p>\n

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