Healing is the New Luxury: Thailand’s 2026 Wellness Vision
Holiday travel to Thailand to experience a luxury wellness vacation was given special attention at this year’s Thailand Travel Mart.
It was done so under the promotional positioning statement “healing is the new luxury,” which was presented to the over 900 delegates who attended the travel mart, held this year in the city of Pattaya.
International travel product buyers numbered 429 at the 2026 edition of the TTM, an increase of 5.7% over the 406 who attended the market in Chiang Mai last year. Amongst them were five buyers from Canada, each bringing different goals and expectations with them. As the market drew to a close, those available for interviews relayed their assessments of Thailand’s international tourism marketplace.
For example, Lisa Lau of Okushu Tours in Toronto said “the event was exceptionally well-organized, from the registration and opening ceremony to the daily meeting agenda and the evening events in Pattaya.”
Lau took some time to find activities and attractions that personified what it means to take a luxury wellness vacation in Thailand. Her stay included a range of experiences, including a meditative sound bath and a mind-calming Mandala printing ritual, followed by “a Thai boxing class to strengthen my body and muscle coordination, finishing my day with world-class, tasty, healthy cuisine. The overall experience was truly remarkable, serving as a compelling embodiment of the ‘healing is the new luxury’ theme emphasised at the TTM.”
Canadian buyers at TTM
Another buyer who was especially motivated by the conference theme was Rose McCourt, travel designer for Seven Lotus Signature Escapes in Ontario. This was her first time attending the TTM, and said it had proven very useful to her business. She was drawn by the wellness theme, describing herself as a wellness expert.
“The concept of wellness as the new luxury is something that attracted me right away, which is why I tried so hard to be here,” said McCourt, who found attractions like the Sanctuary of Truth Museum to be especially compelling. McCourt is in the midst of designing and building a luxury wellness resort in northern Thailand.
The buyer-supplier meetings took place at the Nong Nooch Pattaya International Convention and Exhibition Center (NICE), just outside of the city & Christina Wong of One Dream Travel met with suppliers from Premier Resorts and Hotels Co. of Thailand during one of the timed meetings at the TTM.
Christina Wong, a director for One Dream Travel in Vancouver and a repeat attendee at the TTM, reported that the Nong Nooch Pattaya International Convention and Exhibition Center (NICE) was roomy and easy to navigate. She said that the marketplace had been set up to maximize the flow between meetings, allowing longer, deeper conversations.
She was pleased to have found suppliers who can deliver the kinds of products that matched the conference theme of luxury wellness – those that can offer a combination of mental, physical and spiritual experiences, in a local style, said Wong. “This year I have already found two or three suppliers who are really interested in working with us. These will be on the One Dream website soon,” she said.
This was the first TTM for Marina Artemova, a luxury travel planner for Travel Edge Network in Montreal. She was keen to establish new contacts, to put a face to those she knows, and to learn more about Thailand and Southeast Asia.
Essential to that quest was her knowing that, while Canadians can find beautiful beaches and tropical climates in destinations just south of here, there is a whole other world of attractions in Thailand for her clients.
“This is something completely different, a completely different experience, that they will never experience in our hemisphere,” said Artemova. “There are different cultures, traditions, religions, food, everything. So it is absolutely a new world for many people when they come here.”
More Canadians to Thailand
The buyers were on tightly timed schedules to meet some of the 428 Thailand holiday product sellers at the mart – the great majority defined as accommodations (331). In keeping with the healing-as-luxury travel theme, the TTM identified seven suppliers as wellness resorts.
Also in attendance at the TTM were 63 hosted media from around the world, selected by 28 TAT international offices. The journalists and influencers were privy to a barrage of overseas market statistics that defined the success of Thailand’s tourism promotion efforts on the world stage.
For instance, they learned that about 264,000 Canadians travelled to Thailand in 2025, for an increase of 5% over 2024. That percentage increase was almost exactly on par with the percentage growth from the U.S.A. And about 132,000 visitors from Canada landed in Thailand from January to May this year, setting a pace that bodes well for the 2026 total.
Media in attendance at a press conference also learned that North Americans are staying in Thailand for an average of 14.5 nights, and are spending on average 66,750 THB (Thai baht) on their holidays. Their top favourite destinations are Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Krabi and Chonburi, from first to fifth.
Canadian buyers who attended the recent TTM were (l to r) Marina Artemova, a luxury travel planner for Travel Edge Network; Rose McCourt, travel designer for Seven Lotus Signature Escapes; Christina Wong, a director for One Dream Travel; and Lisa Lau, founder/managing director of Okushu Tours & Thai dancers performed for the crowds of TTM delegates who attended the first night welcome party at the Alexa Beach Club in Pattaya
Some key world news developments are influencing Thailand travel decisions, said officials from the TAT, and these were described during the press conference.
For example, U.S. inflation and fuel costs have pushed consumer confidence to historic lows, said the TAT. As such, the summer of 2026 is set to be the most expensive in years for travel, with economy airfares ballooning by 20% year over year, but demand for Thailand holidays remains robust, said the TAT.
The still-frayed relationship between Canada and the U.S. is proving to be beneficial to Thailand, as Canadians redirect their snowbird escape plans away from America to other warm destinations, said the TAT. The Authority also noted that Air Canada remains the only North American airline with a direct non-stop route to Thailand.
Summer meets luxury wellness
Summer season services to Bangkok from Vancouver are being offered for the first time this year by Air Canada, after a successful four years of daily winter season flights between the two cities. The summer-season flights operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, using Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
The Air Canada BKK-YVR flights are currently the only non-stop services from North America to Thailand. “It is one of a kind,” said Leslie Machado, the strategic director for Avia Reps in Canada, in an interview earlier this year. “There is no question that these flights will grow the market exponentially.”
The timing of the new Air Canada service meshes well with Thailand’s intention to promote its wellness vacation resources, and to do so in the slower summer time season.
The TAT has repositioned this traditional low-season as the “green season,” and it invites travellers to experience the country when warm rains not only generate lush landscapes but also reduce the visitor crowds at popular locations like Wat Pho and Wat Suthat in Bangkok.
Chiravadee Khunsub, the deputy governor of international marketing for the TAT in Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Africa, backed that up, saying “Canadians are seeking more than a vacation – they are seeking transformation. Thailand’s blend of nature, spirituality and warm hospitality makes it one of the most compelling destinations for meaningful, healing-centered journeys.”
That magic is naturally manifest in the summer season, says a statement by the TAT. “Healing is the new luxury. And nowhere is that truth more vivid than in the kingdom’s lush green season, when the land exhales, turns impossibly green, and invites the visitor to slow down, breathe deeply, and be restored.”
