The Wellness Tourism Association (WTA) has published a non-regulatory global industry framework designed to ensure the retreat market offers responsible experiences.

The Six Principles for Responsible Retreats have been created to provide a shared reference point to help strengthen transparency, consistency and trust across the industry.

The principles, which cover areas that relate to professional standards and participant wellbeing, are expected to provide greater clarity around what retreats should look like for customers, retreat leaders, travel advisors, venues, educators and booking platforms.

All companies and organisations involved in offering retreats are being encouraged by the WTA to review, adopt and share the principles.

Dr Sheri Rosenthal, WTA retreat committee chair, told Spa Business: "The Six Principles for Responsible Retreats are needed because the retreat marketplace has grown quickly, but the shared understanding of what makes a retreat responsible, ethical, and professionally held has not always kept pace.

"Without clear principles, the marketplace can become confusing for everyone involved, participants may not know what questions to ask, retreat leaders may not fully understand the scope of their responsibility, and venues, travel advisors, educators, and booking platforms may not have a common framework for evaluating retreat experiences.

"At its best, the retreat industry has the power to create meaningful healing, connection, growth, and transformation. But without shared standards around leadership, safety, transparency, participant care, inclusivity, and respect for communities and environments, there is a greater risk of inconsistency, misunderstanding, poor preparation, and loss of trust.

"These Principles are not about over-regulating the industry. They are about giving all of us a shared language and a thoughtful reference point so the retreat marketplace can mature with greater integrity, professionalism, and care for the people we serve."

The Six Principles

1.Qualified leadership and facilitation – retreat leaders need to have the experience, qualifications and professionalism to guide participants responsibly. 

This means retreat leaders will have the relevant training and certifications, have a clear scope of their practice and limitations, be able to facilitate groups and manage challenges and also actively pursue participant feedback for continuous improvement.

2. Safety and risk management – participants’ physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing is a foundational priority for retreat leaders under this principle. 

This means leaders must be compliant with legal registration requirements, have professional liability insurance, be prepared in cases of emergency with protocols in place, have clear health and safety procedures, ensure participants take part in health screening and disclosure processes and ensure appropriate group sizes for the experiences offered.

3. Transparency and integrity – Honest and accurate information should be provided to participants at all times by retreat leaders. 

This includes transparent, itemised pricing, clear terms and conditions and accurate descriptions of the retreat on offer without misleading information.

4. Thoughtful design and inclusion – experiences should be intentionally designed for inclusivity.

Retreat leaders should consider the pacing of their itinerary, accessibility considerations, dietary and mobility accommodations and how experiences and activities are framed to be voluntary.

5. Respect and care – every participant should be treated with respect and care.

This means meeting confidentiality expectations, using informed consent practices, having behavioural guidelines for participants and facilitators, healthy boundaries, emotional support protocols and post-retreat follow-up support.

6. Community, culture and environment – retreat leaders should be respectful of the places, cultures and communities in which they operate.

This looks like having only a minimal ecological impact at the retreat venue, with respectful host community engagement and responsible use of cultural language and representation of local traditions.

Online discussion

Sheri Rosenthal will be hosting an online discussion about the application of the principles across the global retreat ecosystem on 29 July at 11am ET. The Zoom link can be found here.

The Wellness Tourism Association

Last year the WTA relaunched under new ownership as a for-profit organisation under Robin Ruiz, founder and CEO of Wellness in Travel and Tourism (WITT). 

WTA and WITT then partnered to launch a set of measurable wellness benchmarks and a certification process for hotels around the world called Core Wellness Standards for Hotels.