She co-founded Pure Health Zanzibar, which costs from £3,065 per person for eight nights, to try to help people like her who are suffering from poor sleep, low mood, digestive sluggishness and thinning hair, adding that the aim is to develop coping mechanisms that they can incorporate into their daily lives long after leaving the tropical island.
“Investing in a passion project, like wellness, can be a gamble,” she explains. “But the best business ideas are often things you’ve tried to find for yourself and realised don’t really exist.”
Pursuing a business opportunity based purely on your own interests – a common theme among wellness founders – is not without its risks, though.
Jones says he was conscious of this potential blind spot when he set up Makahiya Fitness.
“I’d love to say we had a clear, unwavering vision from day one and simply executed it,” he reflects. “But the reality is that the concept has evolved alongside the fitness and wellness industry and what people want.”
Looking to the future, Jones says “data-driven wellness is huge now”, and guests are increasingly looking for more than just bootcamp-style training sessions in the resort’s air-conditioned gym.
The business caters to this via “pre-arrival testing of hormones, gut microbiomes, and blood work” as well as screening for strength, cardiovascular and mobility issues.
He says business owners and corporate professionals, in particular, view their health “as an investment with a fantastic ROI”. Wellness travel can prove an incredibly lucrative business opportunity, he adds, “when you target the right market”.