Rachel Branson is the Founder of Haywood Media and Editor-in-Chief of Wellbeing Magazine, where she has spent more than twenty years writing about health, wellbeing and the evolving global wellness industry.
Her work has taken her around the world in search of destinations that are redefining what it means to travel well. Each year, she spends several months visiting and reviewing wellness hotels, retreats, spas and health-focused destinations, exploring everything from traditional healing practices and thermal bathing cultures to longevity programmes, preventative health, nature-based wellbeing and emerging wellness technologies.
Through Wellbeing Magazine and its travel platform, Roam, Rachel is particularly interested in the relationship between place and wellbeing: why certain environments make us feel better, how destinations can create meaningful and restorative experiences, and how wellness is increasingly becoming part of the way hotels, resorts and destinations are designed.
Her connection to property and placemaking began early, growing up in a family working across chartered surveying, residential and commercial property and new-home development. She later worked as Head of Communications for a social housing provider, giving her an understanding of development, communities and the wider role that the built environment plays in our lives.
Today, Rachel brings these worlds together, exploring how wellness, hospitality, destination development and placemaking can create experiences and environments that support healthier, happier lives.
