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Global Wellness Institute Announces Expansion of Global Wellness Tourism Congress Calendar for 2015

Wellness expert Anni Hood to lead initiative to drive awareness of $494 billion wellness tourism industry globally

New York, NY – January 21, 2015 – The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), an international think-tank that develops research and resources to positively impact the global wellness industry, announced today plans to deliver its Global Wellness Tourism Congress (GWTC) in multiple cities during the 2015 calendar year.

The global initiative, headed by international wellness expert Anni Hood, will highlight the opportunity the $494 billion wellness tourism industry offers individual countries and regions. GWI plans to introduce the one-day congresses to four new countries in 2015, in addition to the annual GWTC event held in conjunction with the Global Wellness Summit in Mexico City this November.

Sponsoring countries will gain invaluable insight into cutting-edge research and quantified data on wellness tourism in their region and will be able to showcase the authenticity and indigenous wellness experiences of their country to a broader market. The congresses will focus on education and infrastructure to support the ongoing establishment of wellness tourism and will initiate collaboration between public and private sectors to develop cohesive wellness tourism goals.

“Anni brings over fifteen years of global wellness expertise to GWTC and has been leading the GWI’s wellness tourism initiatives since the first GWTC event took place during the Global Wellness Summit in New Delhi, India,” said Susie Ellis, Chairman and CEO of the GWI. “We are thrilled to announce Anni’s expanding role in bringing the wellness tourism message to a broader audience.”

With Hood’s help, the GWI is focused on actively raising the awareness of wellness tourism within governments and their relevant ministries. According to recent GWI research1, wellness tourism grew almost twice as fast as global tourism overall in the last year. One of the Institute’s initiatives in 2015 is to prompt the conversation about the need for governments to put Ministers of Wellness in place to advance the wellbeing of our global population. It’s a topic that will be on the agenda at the Global Wellness Summit in Mexico City November 13-15, 2015 and Ellis recently co-authored an article with Renee Moorefield, CEO of Wisdom Works, “2015: The Year of the Ministry of Wellness” that appeared on the Huffington Post.

In addition to her work with the GWI, Hood is founder and CEO of Anni Hood Wellness Business Consultancy, which provides wellness integration services to both public and private sector businesses, and K.I.S Lifestyle wellness solutions, a community offering affordable and accessible health resolution.

About the Global Wellness Institute

The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) is an international think-tank that brings together leaders and visionaries from private and public sectors to positively impact and shape the future of the wellness industry. The GWI is the umbrella organization of the Global Wellness Summit (GWS) and the Global Wellness Tourism Congress (GWTC). The GWI is considered the leading global research and educational resource for the $3.4 trillion wellness industry.WellnessEvidence.com, the world’s first online portal to the medical evidence for common wellness approaches, is also a GWI initiative.