Thailand pitches wellness travel to Japan as a weak yen squeezes budgets

Thailand took its pitch to Japanese travelers straight to Tokyo this week, staffing a stand at Tourism Expo Japan 2026 from September 24 to 27 at Tokyo Big Sight. The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) built its presence around wellness, culture and sustainable travel, a shift it presented as the way into a market it wants to hold through a difficult year.

TAT built its presence around the theme "Healing is the New Luxury," leaning into culture, slower travel and sustainability rather than the usual beach-and-shopping pitch. TAT Governor Thapanee Kiatphaibool said on Thursday, September 24, that the agency was promoting Thailand to Japanese travelers at the expo, positioning wellness as the way in for a market TAT wants to hold onto through a difficult year.

The numbers explain the urgency. Thailand counted 742,605 Japanese visitors between January 1 and September 22, against a full-year target of 1.05 million. Closing that gap will take a strong final quarter. TAT is also targeting 42 to 44 billion baht in revenue from this single market. A weaker yen, combined with higher fuel surcharges, has pushed up the cost of a Thailand trip for Japanese travelers.

What makes the market worth defending is how much each visitor already spends once they arrive. TAT's own figures put the average Japanese stay at 7.74 days, with spending of about 5,232 baht per person per day and 40,497 baht per trip on average.

Part of the plan is steering travelers away from the same handful of stops. TAT is pushing wellness and cultural itineraries into secondary cities and regions beyond Bangkok and Phuket, and working with airlines to add charter capacity from regional Japanese airports, including Sendai, so those trips are easier to book directly rather than routed entirely through Tokyo or Osaka.

That shift toward less familiar destinations changes what a traveler actually needs once they land. A wellness retreat outside a major hub, a temple town with no metro line, a resort an hour from the nearest airport: all of it depends on transport that shows up on time and costs what it said it would. This is exactly where friction has traditionally shown up for visitors renting a car, scooter or motorbike in Thailand, from vague deposit terms to booking pages that only work in Thai or English.

Balm Rentals built its marketplace around closing that particular gap. The app shows the price, deposit and rental conditions upfront, before a traveler pays anything, works in the visitor's own language, and lists only vetted, legally operating rental partners across the country's tourist regions. None of that replaces the work Thai rental operators and TAT are already doing to spread visitors further afield.

It just gives travelers, Japanese or otherwise, one clear place to book the transport that makes a secondary-city itinerary actually work, instead of a source of surprises after they land.