Leading hospitality group Accor will this week launch a unique new white paper, The Road Map Towards a Transformational Wellbeing Culture.

Talking exclusively to European Spa, global vice-president of wellbeing at Accor Emlyn Brown reveals insights from the white paper, ahead of its publication on Thursday, January 12.

“Our highly anticipated new report is part of Accor’s ongoing Health to Wealth podcast series, created to explore the world’s state of wellbeing, which is set to become the transformational driving force in business, society and leadership.

“The Health to Wealth white paper explores eight key pathways for navigating a future where human wellbeing and fulfilment are essential priorities. It demonstrates that, if we’re to maintain the equilibrium of our lives, our society and our planet, wellbeing must be recognised as an imperative.

“From micro to macro the relevance of wellbeing is set to make an influential and unprecedented impact on everyday decisions. Accor is supporting a shift toward the emergence of a wellbeing economy to help people, businesses and communities achieve their priorities for alignment and prosperity.”

A radical revamp

The document was curated by international business advisory group Well Intelligence, in partnership with Accor. Anni Hood, chief executive at Well Intelligence, said: “This white paper is a fire-starter for radical revamp in the spa sector.

“The increasingly complex needs of clients, communities and service providers means a leap-frog forward in how the cornerstones of wellness and wellbeing culture are integrated and adopted for client experience, affordability and the vital nurture and care of practitioner teams.”

“In our last white paper, Accor realised 80% of our customers across all demographics and in all countries were taking a daily step to improve wellness. That’s huge,” Brown told European Spa. “Our responsibility now is to remove the perception that wellness is expensive and hard to penetrate.

“We must encourage people to access wellness in the small, everyday ways we know are fundamentally achievable – there’s much more that can be done.”

Cornerstones of wellbeing

The white paper’s eight key findings are:

1. Wellbeing must bring together body and mind

The link between mental and physical wellbeing has been widely documented; these learnings are yielding innovative neuroscientific technology with psychological and physiological benefits.

2. Measurement is the route to optimising wellbeing

Governments, health organisations and corporations are called upon to collect more comprehensive and meaningful health data. “Wellbeing means collecting data and acting on it – get the numbers and you can make it better,” said Brown.

3. Wellbeing starts with our finances

It’s essential to help people manage money and financial stress, while offering affordable wellbeing solutions.

4. Access to wellbeing needs to be fully democratic

Wellbeing must be inclusive, available, accessible and achievable for everyone, regardless of wealth, gender, race, nationality, sexuality or ability.

5. Joined-up thinking is a must for true transformation

6. Technology must become a positive force

Empowering individuals to have control over their data, while improving the quality of data that is shared, collected, and used.

7. Our wellbeing is entwined with the planet

How we use the world’s resources is critical to a sense of wellbeing, ensuring our air, food and water supplies are safe, nourishing, and sustainable.

8. Wellbeing transcends cultural differences

Wellbeing is a priority

“The conclusion we’ve reached is that wellbeing must now be recognised as a priority for everyone,” continued Brown.

“That means reaching into almost every area of our lives – from finance to nutrition to data privacy – to understand what wellbeing means in that context and find a way towards its fulfilment. If well-being is the destination, then wellness translates to the choices that we all make in the pursuit of that end.”