By
Laura Hyde |
Wellness at sea is becomingly an increasingly important aspect of the cruise guest experience. Cruise lines such as Virgin Voyages, Celebrity Cruises, MSC Cruises, Crystal Cruises, P&O Cruises and Royal Caribbean International now offer IV therapy and medi-spa treatments as part of their wellness at sea programmes.
Marenia goes one step further. It is not a spa adding clinical services; it is the ship’s medical operation – with doctors, nurses, an equipped medical centre and a laboratory – opening its doors to wellness.
Created by maritime healthcare company Vikand and wellness entrepreneur Anna Bjurstam, Marenia is a medical wellness concept created for the cruise industry. The medical team onboard are able to actively raise guests’ wellbeing with treatments such as vitamin shots, IV hydration, blood panels drawn and analysed, metabolic and fitness testing, and glucose monitoring, as well as a personal programme for guests who want to understand and improve their health.
“Cruise ships already carry something extraordinarily valuable: professional medical teams and certified medical infrastructure,” said Peter Hult, CEO of Vikand. “Historically that capability has rightly focused on illness, injury and emergencies. Marenia asks a different question: how do we responsibly use it to help guests feel better, recover faster and leave the ship healthier than they arrived with the same clinical governance that has always protected them at sea?”
Marenia has been designed to operate alongside existing spa and wellness operations, under Vikand’s clinical governance and protocols. It adds a nurse, employed and trained by Marenia, to work inside a medical operation already onboard, with no requirement for a new licence or clinic. Because Marenia uses the ship’s existing onboard infrastructure, operators can add a new wellness category and revenue stream, without building a separate facility.
“Guests no longer just want to relax; they want to understand their health, improve how they feel and make changes that last after the journey ends,” said Bjurstam. “A cruise is the perfect place for that, because guests have something increasingly rare in modern life: time. Marenia uses that time to keep guests well, and to help those who want more to truly optimise how they feel and how they age. With Vikand’s medical expertise behind it, we can do that responsibly, and beautifully.”
Marenia is currently being piloted with selected cruise operators, before expanding across the international cruise market.