''Wellness and fitness fits right into that pattern of an ever-broadening array of niches that the travel industry is catering to,'' Kay said. And, like so much in marketing today, it's driven by retiring Baby Boomers concerned about their wellness and with the income to do something about it, he said.
Marketing and research firm Ypartnership said its latest survey of affluent travelers — the top 7 percent of U.S. households, or those that bring in more than $150,000 a year — showed 30 percent of respondents named yoga as their favorite spa program or service. Massage was the most popular with 65 percent.
Yoga vacations come in many incarnations. The high end can range from packages at luxury resorts to all-inclusive vacations to India, Chile, Bali or elsewhere. The spectrum of choices includes more austere retreats that offer the bare bones — more meditation than amenities — and cost much less.
The Feathered Pipe has been offering yoga retreats at its ranches in Montana since 1975. Back then, yoga was little known in this country, said India Supera, co-founder and executive director. The people who came were mostly young and open to the groovy new thing. They stayed three weeks for $500, she said.
Today, the Feathered Pipe still offers mostly weeklong retreats at its Helena and Wolf Creek, Mont., ranches. But now the center also leads luxury yogavacations abroad. In October, the Feathered Pipe will bring about 30 people on a 10-day, $8,000 trip to a resort in Kerala, India, headlined by popular yoga personalities Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman.
Supera chalks up the growing interest in yoga vacations to the spread of the yoga practice itself in the U.S.
''People have felt so good from doing yoga — we'll have everybody from rock stars to people who have saved two years for this vacation,'' she said.
The number of retreats being offered is booming, the hard part is figuring out what kind of retreat to choose, said Andrea Ferretti, senior editor of Yoga Journal.
Ferretti suggests first-timers think about where in the world they'd like to go, then ask their local yoga instructor about the teachers at the retreat destination. There are also teachers who will organize and lead their own group trips abroad.
''I think even if you're a beginner and you're really open to the yoga experience, you want to be sure the retreat is geared to you,'' and isn't too challenging, Ferretti said. ''Most of us have never done yoga four hours a day for seven days.''
Others say it's also important to consider the styles of yoga practiced at the retreat, as well as the level of discipline expected, as yoga retreats vary widely in size, scope and purpose.
Ted McDonald started his business, Adventure Yoga Retreats, in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2005 with the idea of combining the market appeal of adventure travel with yoga. The idea was to market to ''the people who know yoga is beneficial but who aren't yogis ... tap into a whole market of people who travel, who love to be healthy.''
He began that year with two retreats. The next year he organized 14 retreats; this year McDonald's business will lead more than 20 retreats that combine yoga with surfing, whitewater rafting or trekking. An upcoming $3,000 retreat to Africa pairs safari and yoga.
People don't just want a break from the office, they want vacations that can change their lives, said Ken Johnson, owner of Retreats Online. The Internet listing service advertises yoga getaways in the U.S. and abroad for between $100 and $500 a day.
''People are dissatisfied with their life for some reason and they want to get a fresh start,'' Johnson said. ''So they go to a yoga retreat or a detox retreat so they can learn how to get (life) going in a different direction.''