Las Vegas Bets Big on Wellness Despite Travel Slowdown

Wellness tourism moved squarely from niche to mainstream, with 84% of Americans now ranking it as a travel priority. Amidst this rise, the United States drinking rate is at a 90-year low, and just 54% of American adults say they consume alcohol. As consumer sentiment on alcohol and health shifts, Las Vegas highlights a different side of its personality.

Vegas sees opportunity in wellness travel, a welcome trend amidst an overall decline in tourism. Visitor numbers have been down year over year for nine straight months. The city has been buffeted by strained household budgets and a steep decline in Canadian visitors to the U.S. Local investment in wellness offerings continues unabated.

A new kind of fabulous

With alcohol consumption at historic lows and wellness spending growing at a healthy clip, Las Vegas introduced a new slogan in September. Gone are the days of "What Happens Here, Stays Here," which gave travelers tacit permission to lean into hedonism.

The new "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" campaign draws inspiration from the iconic sign and "is a reminder of how Las Vegas makes you feel, no matter how you choose to experience it," says Michon Martin, CEO of R&R Partners, who worked on the campaign. More and more, visitors choose wellness as their kind of fabulous.

As with many trends, Las Vegas leads the way in making wellness entertaining. Kate Wik, LVCVA chief marketing officer, highlights the circadian rhythm-inspired treatment at Lapis Spa inside Fontainebleau Las Vegas, which picks up on the sleep tourism trend.

When it comes to dining, the excellence that Las Vegas is known for now puts health on the menu, with fine vegan dining at Crossroads Kitchen at Resorts World. Wik says that these innovations have made Vegas "especially attractive for wellness seekers looking for more than just traditional entertainment. It's a destination where people can leave feeling better than when they arrived."

In a city known for its speakeasies, this kind of thinking marks quite a shift. Luxury travel writer Casandra Karpiak agrees that the city offers much more than gambling. "Lapis Spa at Fontainebleau delivers calm on a spectacular scale. Awana Spa's Art of Aufguss ritual turns heat into theater, and the F1-themed facial at the Waldorf Astoria Spa is the ultimate pre-race indulgence."

Indulgence takes on new meaning

At Lapis Spa & Wellness inside the Fontainebleau Las Vegas hotel, indulgence begins paradoxically with a forced detox. Spa attendants gently inform guests of the no-phone policy, requesting devices be left in the lockers. The provided robes have no pockets, leaving guests no choice but to comply.

With no distractions, spa goers are free to focus on the 55,000 square feet of wellness offerings. The spa excels in traditional services like massages, facials and body treatments, earning it the distinction of 2024 world's best casino hotel spa and Nevada's best hotel spa by World Spa Awards.

However, it's the extras that make the experience memorable. Lapis Spa & Wellness offers guests a near-endless variety of treatment options. Most guests start in the giant hot tub. The adventurous then move to the cold plunge before exploring one of the saunas. Some engage in herbal inhalation, a sauna-like space where fresh botanicals are heated to release their essential oils.

Guests with respiratory problems can visit the salt mist chamber. A salt brick wall provides a striking visual, and a salt dispensing system circulates salty air to reduce inflammation and clear toxins.

At the end of all the heat treatments, the spa recommends a quick trip to the snow shower, which feels like standing under a shaved ice machine as it churns out slushy snowflakes. In a city known for excess, this spa fits right in.

Well-rounded wellness

Whatever your health goal, the wellness corridor of the Fontainebleau is equipped to deliver. Steps away from the spa is the fitness center, where 14,000 square feet of exercise space greet visitors who want a more active kind of wellness.

Next door, those wanting a more clinical route to wellness pop into NutriDrip, where there is an IV concoction for every goal from longevity to increasing fertility. The hotel-exclusive Fontaine of Youth drip combines NAD+, vitamin C, glutathione and other vitamins and minerals to achieve detoxification, replenishment and cellular respiration for an eye-popping $1,000.

For those looking to achieve wellness through nutrition, Fontainebleau is home to the only wellness bar by supplement brand Cymbiotika. Staff wearing T-shirts with the slogan "longevity is the new luxury" serve $11 oat milk lattes with liposomal longevity mushrooms that give the drink a distinctly earthy tang. For an additional $3, patrons customize $21 smoothies and acai bowls with supplements like Irish sea moss, liquid colostrum or something called golden mind.

Wellness is big business

These unusual offerings make up part of the functional nutrition space, a fast-growing segment of the $500 billion wellness industry in the U.S. Half of all consumers and two-thirds of Gen Z and millennial respondents say they purchased functional-nutrition products last year.

Up to 60% of global consumers in the same study report that healthy aging is a top or very important priority for them. Those consumers are also travelers, and McKinsey & Company highlights travel as a top area for growth in the wellness industry.

The global wellness tourism market hit nearly $1 trillion in 2024 and is expected to reach more than $3 trillion by 2034. North America accounts for 40% of spending. Amidst this growth, Las Vegas has quietly amassed nine spas with a Forbes four or five-star rating.

Fontainebleau recently received the city's only MICHELIN key, the company's new hospitality equivalent to its prestigious star system for restaurant ratings. The city has never been better situated to serve up both longevity and luxury.

Something for everyone

Off the strip, new businesses rise to meet the demands of both locals and travelers. Pause Studio, a wellness franchise, opened its first Nevada location in Las Vegas in October. Visitors choose from offerings like cold plunge, infrared sauna, flotation therapy, compression therapy and IV vitamin drips.

Another newcomer, RAEYA, opened a luxury women's wellness sanctuary in November. RAEYA offers a science-backed wellness membership experience with select a la carte services. It focuses on personalized wellness, longevity-focused treatments and products by Laurel Skincare, a farm-to-face pioneer.

Nearby, Life Time, a luxury health club chain, broke ground on a new location scheduled to open in late 2026. The 130,000 square foot space will include standard fitness classes and sports courts, but also a hydrotherapy suite with a sauna, steam room, whirlpool and cold plunge.

For those who prefer to reconnect with nature, Las Vegas is an easy drive from several national parks. Red Rock Resort sits at the gateway to Red Rock Canyon, offering guests access to wide open spaces as well as the Red Rock Spa by Well & Being.

An unlikely pairing

Economic headwinds lead to lower visitor numbers, but wellness offers opportunities for tourism growth. Las Vegas meets the moment with award-winning spas, new business openings and collaborations in functional nutrition. Despite a reputation for overindulgence, Las Vegas proves that fabulous can also mean well.

Ashley Wali is a Seattle-based travel journalist and curator of Wanderlux, specializing in luxury family travel, sports tourism and wellness travel. Her work has appeared in The Seattle Times, Boston Herald, The Philadelphia Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, and many more. Recent assignments have had her slurping oysters on Cape Cod and cruising the fjords of Norway.