Wellness Week 2019 has kicked off in Romagna, Italy. The event will run from 17 to 26 May.

Wellness Week was founded by Technogym as part of its Wellness Valley initiative.

During the week, 300 events will take place in fitness, sport, arts and culture, food and wine and health. The strapline for the event is ‘The week of movement and healthy lifestyle’.

New research, released today by the Wellness Foundation at the 2019 Technogym Forum in Cesena, Italy, shows how Wellness Week and the Wellness Valley are impacting the health of the local population.

Speaking at the Forum, Luigi Angelini, of the Wellness Foundation, said: “The Wellness Valley now has the most active population in Italy – people are 10 per cent more active than in other areas – and this is due to the wide variety of activity opportunities on offer.

“This is about culture and engagement. For example, the number of gyms which provide ‘exercise as medicine’ services in Romagna increased from 42 per cent to 70 per cent between 2016 and 2018 and now involves 66.7 per cent of all gyms in the area.

The number of people cycling in Romagna’s Wellness Valley is now 29 per cent, vs 11 per cent in Italy as a whole.

All those results are the effects of an activity culture and are made possible by Technogym, explained Angelini, saying: “the combination of the vision, the digital platform and the technology have given these outcomes.”

The impacts can be replicated anywhere, he said, calling on Forum delegates to replicate the Wellness Valley concept around the world.

• To read more about the Wellness Week was founded by Technogym as part of its Wellness Valley initiative, click here for a feature-length article in Spa Business Issue 3 2018.