Conflict with Cambodia has led to a run of negative headlines for tourism-driven Thailand, but officials in the Southeast Asian country are hoping a strong push internationally and a focus on wellness will help garner more attention from travelers.
Speaking on the latest episode of the CoStar News Hotels podcast, STR's area director for Asia-Pacific Jesper Palmqvist said the Tourism Authority of Thailand is making a noticeable shift in strategy and working to increase their international visibility.
"The big news is wellness is in ... and casino is out now that we've had reports of their aspiring prime minister pre-election saying that now we're going to push that down the road," he said.
Thailand is targeting 3 trillion baht ($95.7 billion) in tourism spend, and Palmqvist said that requires a change since the country has historically not been among the most aggressive in international promotion.
"That's something that I think many will have criticized in the past saying like we talked about how [the Singapore Tourism Board] has done a good job promoting itself and historically [so has] Australia, but Thailand [has been seen as] resting on its laurels," he said. "And when we're seeing what you're saying there, like that global investment, trying to attract more Americans, etc., [I think that's] something that's been missing and pays off."
Thailand's hotel investment outlook is positive, with expectations of more asset sales, Palmqvist said.
"A lot of [the interest] is around branded [residences], which is still hot," he said.
Looking at full-year 2025 data, Palmqvist noted the three top performing countries in terms of hotel revenue per available room across Asia-Pacific were Japan, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
For the full-year, Australia and India have been stable, positive performers, he said. Then, New Zealand and China managed to turn around periods of softness to finish 2025 with either positive growth or a much smaller decline than originally expected.
"China ended negative, but it's only minus 2.5% RevPAR and [rates] ended flat," he said. "I think that's the main story, that the shift has started."
For more from STR's Palmqvist, listen to the podcast episode embedded above.