Skift Take

There is huge untapped potential in getting Americans to travel to Europe or the Middle East for lower prices on high-tech wellness services.

Justin Dawes

Health, wellness, and living longer: They could all have a travel component, and investor Greg O’Hara believes there’s money to be made.

“We expect to make a nine figure bet in this space,” said O’Hara, founder of private equity firm Certares with nearly $11 billion in assets. “This is a multi-billion opportunity for travel,” said O’Hara, who closed out the 2024 Skift Global Forum in a session with Skift CEO Rafat Ali. 

O’Hara believes there is huge untapped potential in getting Americans to travel to Europe or the Middle East for lower prices on high-tech wellness services focused on living longer.

There are a few aspects that go into modern wellness, including DNA tests to determine things like what individuals should not be eating or how caffeine affects them. That particular DNA test in the U.S. can cost $10,000 to process at a lab in Boston. In Italy, that same test is €400 even though it is processed in the same Boston lab, he said.

He suggested it’s an opportunity for the travel industry: “I wonder if I can get one of your customers out there to travel to the Amalfi Coast … have all this stuff done, and have a great vacation.”

Cruise lines are already starting to take advantage with cabins focused on wellness, he said.

(Skift has previously featured travel opportunities for sleep wellness.) 

What’s the Plan

For O’Hara, the wellness realization began in 2018 when he set out to lose weight and get healthy. He was part of the Ozempic trial in 2018, he said.

“I did the stupidest thing ever. I knew it worked but I didn’t buy the stock. Because it didn’t occur to me that I could use that information for financial gain.”

He started looking into wellness retreats in Europe, which would struggle to get reservations each summer. That’s where he saw an opportunity to increase demand to match oversupply.

“We’ve got a pretty good plan right now. We think that the longevity experience has to be married to a destination in some way,” he said. “It’s super boring, by the way, if you’ve done this, to just sit there and get detox IVs and ozone therapy and whatnot in a bed all day. You want to go do something … so it needs an attraction staple to it.”

It doesn’t have to be a top-tier destination, he said. It could be Milos or Crete in Greece, or some other places where leaders are looking to create jobs in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.

“The destinations are really excited about building these things out because they provide durable, high paying jobs,” he said. “And remember, the cheapest way to create a job in the world is still an investment in travel.”

Certares’ Role in Growing Travel Companies

Certares has had a big impact on the travel industry already.

O’Hara was part of the $900 million joint venture to buy half of American Express Global Business Travel, which earlier this year said it plans to acquire CWT for about $570 million. He was also part of the $6 billion deal to take Hertz out of bankruptcy. 

Other Certares investments include Internova Travel Group, Latam Airlines, Liberty Tripadvisor (Tripadvisor’s controlling shareholder), cruise lines, and multiple hotels and hotel groups.

O’Hara was named in the inaugural Skift Power Rankings, a list of the most powerful leaders in the travel industry.