Grand Wailea, the Waldorf-Astoria resort on Maui’s Wailea Beach, has announced a new partnership with Los Angeles market Erewhon to bring curated wellness to the island destination.
“Much like Grand Wailea, Erewhon is more than just a place; it’s an elevated lifestyle destination and extraordinary community centered on world-class experiences and optimal well-being,” JP Oliver, Grand Wailea’s Managing Director, said in a statement. “We strive to provide our guests the most thoughtfully curated, premiere wellness and nutrition options, and Erewhon’s offerings are second to none.”
Grand Wailea x Erewhon
Wailea is Erewhon’s first hotel partner. The Waldorf-Astoria resort is spread across 40 acres of tropical oceanfront gardens.
Select market items will be sold on-site, including a limited-edition co-branded drink inspired by Maui’s tropical flavors. Boosting the resort’s farm-to-table dining options, Grand Wailea will also offer Erewhon snacks including dried chili lime mango, spirulina popcorn, and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies throughout the property.
It will also offer “Curated by Erewhon” menus at the gourmet takeaway outlet Café Kula and pop-up style food truck Aloha Trick Pony. Those items include the Toodaloo Trail Mix, French Squirrel protein bites, among others.
The program also includes special resort benefits to Erewhon members. Erewhon’s membership program recently underwent a benefits expansion, which includes a point accrual program that gives members access to upscale brand offers and promotions. At Grand Wailea, it means $100 per night resort credit for up to seven nights and a one-category upgrade on room or suite.
Wellness tourism
The announcement builds on the growing wellness tourism trend as covid restrictions ease and travelers seek out more meaningful and sustainable travel options.
Post-pandemic, travelers say they’re prioritizing different travel experiences than before covid. According to a recent survey by Booking.com, 61 percent of travelers say they’re now looking for travel experiences that are more sustainable and 83 percent said they see sustainable travel as “vital.”
Sustainability and wellness often go hand-in-hand at destinations like Six Senses, which prioritizes personal wellness at all of its destinations, including its forthcoming location in Norway, which it says will be the world’s first climate-positive destination.
The trend is taking hold in places like Ibiza, the island party destination, which is seeing a surge in wellness-focused hotels. Luxury hotels across the planet are prioritizing wellness and sustainability with resorts increasing their offerings. In February, Four Seasons announced the Naviva Resort in Mexico—a nature-immersive destination prioritizing sustainability and wellness, including spa “pods” offering customizable body and face treatments. There’s also a traditional temazcal sweat lodge where local healers will host ceremonial sessions for guests.
Wellness tourism now also includes psychedelic retreats—destinations in places where psychedelic medicine such as ayahuasca and psilocybin are legal. At these resorts, guests not only enjoy luxury accommodations and treatments like massages and facials, but also guided medicine ceremonies and integration sessions.
Erewhon
Erewhon has been leading the shift toward wellness since the 1960s. The destination first opened in 1968 and has since expanded across Los Angeles, with locations in Calabasas, Fairfax/West Hollywood, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Silver Lake, Studio City, and Venice, and three more in the works, in Beverly Hills, Culver City, and Pasadena.
The market is a destination for up-and-coming wellness trends, having launched categories like the functional botanical drinks trend made popular by Bella Hadid’s Kin Euphorics and Brad Pitt’s Enroot.
In March, Erewhon also staked a claim in another booming category: clean beauty. It launched a six-step small-batch-made vegan skincare range featuring natural ingredients that it says are “non-toxic and free of harsh chemicals and synthetics, sulfates, artificial fragrances or colors, animal products, or gluten.”