Hotels add health to the menu

An increasing number of hotels are responding to growing global demand for health and wellness and are catering to the physical and psychological needs of guests while promising enhanced wellbeing – benefits that visitors can take home when the holiday is over. A far cry from more traditional vacations spent lounging on a beach or poolside chair. Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHC), for example, created EVEN Hotels after conducting research that found there are 17 million travelers who want hotels to accommodate their healthy lifestyle needs. Westin hotels also recently launched a Well-Being Movement and even Las Vegas’s MGM Hotel has Stay-Well rooms.

A recent article by Simon Hudson published in Hotel Business Review focuses on this trend and spotlights certain hotels around the world and the specific services they are providing for the growing number of health-conscious visitors. The full article can be found at:

 https://hotelexecutive.com/business_review/4024/hotels-add-health-to-the-menu

Santee Cooper Research Uncovers Yet Another of South Carolina's Hidden Treasures

Beautiful sunset in Santee Cooper Country

Kayaking, motorized boating, fishing, geocaching, hiking, bird watching and golfing are just some of the outdoor activities available along the Blue ways of Santee Cooper Country. Through  a project supported by Santee Cooper, Santee Cooper Country and University of South Carolina, the SmartState Center researchers are conducting a study examining  the development of opening up the waterway for tourism all the way from Columbia down to Charleston. The study aims to assess the current resources and potential tourism attractions, conduct a comparative analysis of similar waterways, measure the interest and demand for tourism along the waterway and examine the attitudes for future tourism development among the key stakeholders in the region. Through this research project, the team has had the pleasure to discover more of South Carolina's bounty of natural resources!



Drs. Hudson and Cardenas at the lock