According to a report from Fortune, Deepak Chopra, a world-renowned leader in medicine, preventive health care, meditation, and mindfulness, today announced his integrative health company and namesake’s multiyear partnership with Swan Hellenic, a luxury cruise company.
“When people are traveling, they have a lot of opportunity and time to explore meditation, yoga, exercise, breathing techniques, and diversity of diet,” he told Fortune in an exclusive interview prior to launch.
The collaboration denotes Swan Hellenic’s initial venture into wellness tourism. The luxury cruise line, formed in the 1950s and relaunched in 2020, will merge its detailed trip itineraries and on-boat services with well-being education and activities created by Chopra and his team.
Called Explore & Restore, the cruise varies in cost from $4,394 to $9,422 and takes place over a five to eight-day period. The wellness voyage maximizes guests' increased interest in preventive health care like stress management and mindfulness—even on PTO. Wellness tourism is an $814.6 billion industry
anticipated to expand by over 12% each
year for the next ten years.
This is Chopra’s first go at the wellness tourism industry. He recently sold his company Chopra Global for a reported $20 million to a conglomerate called the Healing Company. His multi-million-dollar wellness consortium also includes the Chopra Foundation, which places attention on mental health.
Though Chopra says he hadn’t considered the idea of setting sail on a self-care vacation before, “I thought it would be good to extend the distribution of what we teach and our services and products…and wellness tourism is very big right now.”
Practicing mindfulness can aid in regulating the nervous system, allowing people to be more present in their surroundings, which is vital during travel and exploration to build empathy and understanding across cultures, Chopra says.
“A lot of conflicts occur in the world because we’re so unaware of the diversity of human experience, which is so rich, and the future is multicultural. Travel explores that more than anything else,” he says.
The program has six voyages scheduled for 2024, including trips through Panama City, Panama; Palermo, Italy; and Maputo, Mozambique. Travelers will take part in daily breath work, meditation, yoga classes, evening wind-down workshops, self-discovery classes, and group outings to interact with other travelers.
Chopra will be in attendance on some of the trips, offering in-person classes. He will place attention on supplying people with the tools to optimize sleep, manage stress, and increase emotional intelligence, he tells Fortune.
“When we combine all these strategies, we give people the experience of how it feels to have a joyful, energetic body, a loving compassionate heart, a clear mind, and a lightness of spirit,” he says.
The expeditions will also provide cuisine based on the Ayurvedic diet, an ancient Indian medicine system and framework Chopra has educated on for a long time. He says the trips will serve a variety of plant-based foods—emphasizing the seven colors of the rainbow and the Mediterranean diet.
“The travel and wellness industries have become more inexorably linked…Today’s discerning consumer wants an experience that isn’t just confined to spa treatments and yoga sessions. They are in pursuit of enriching experiences that encapsulate—and expand—their mental, physical, and spiritual health,” Simon Belsham, co-founder and CEO of the Healing Company, tells Fortune. “Intentionally curated to foster self-discovery and cultural immersion, the Chopra Explore & Restore well-being voyage is a complete
re-imagination of what a wellness retreat
by sea looks like.”
Chopra says that vacation is an optimal time to focus on self. As well, addressing personal stress and enhancing self-care can help people serve others.
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