Nearly 300 nominees for the world’s first Wellness Travel Awards were announced yesterday (19 June) – a competition set up to honour hotels, resorts, destination spas and retreats offering the best wellness travel, vacations and experiences.

An independent global panel of 25 wellness and travel journalists – including Spa Business editor Liz Terry and managing editor Katie Barnes – plus industry experts, selected the official nominees for the 18 categories. The chosen ones represent six continents, more than 40 countries and are known to offer experiences and environments that leave visitors healthier when they check out than when they checked in.

Wellness enthusiasts can vote for their favourite locations at spafinder.com from now until 19 September 2014. The winners will be announced during the World Travel Market in London between 3-6 November.

“We think this is a milestone for the travel and spa industries – one that recognises the rapidly growing demand for healthier travel options and a sector that is experiencing nearly 50 per cent more growth than global tourism overall,” said organisers from Spafinder Wellness 365 in a statement. This statistic comes from research conducted for the Global Wellness Institute, which found that wellness tourism is one of the fastest growing travel categories, already representing one in seven tourism dollars.