The health and wellness tourism trips to Asia are forecast to reach 128.3 million by 2022 that will help Asia to become the world’s fastest tourism market, says GlobalData.

According to the data and analytics company, international arrivals to Asia-Pacific (APAC) are set to reach 850 million in 2022, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% between 2019 and 2022. A rapid increase in health and wellness trips has emerged as a key driver of this growth in arrivals.

Amber Barnes, travel and tourism analyst at GlobalData said: “The APAC is also, by far, the fastest-growing wellness tourism market; health and wellness trips increased 33% between 2017 and 2019 to reach a 109.4 million. This is because Asia’s wellness traditions have practically defined the world market, but a ‘new Asia’ is also transforming modern health and wellness tourism.”

“Asia’s wellness traditions.”

Its latest report, ‘Key Trends in Health and Wellness Tourism: Analysis of traveller types, key market trends, key destinations, challenges and opportunities’, reveals that Thailand is a key destination within Asia for health and wellness tourism. The company forecasts health and wellness tourism numbers in the country to increase to 27.7 million by 2022 representing a CAGR of 5.6% from 2019.

The largest segment of health and wellness tourism in Thailand is spa tourism with USD 794.7 million being spent in 2019; medical tourism followed with USD 663 million.