The Public Health Ministry of Thailand is implementing a five-year traditional medicine development plan to boost wellness tourism.

The plan aims to increase health security while preserving herbal-medicine wisdom via wellness tourism to attract more foreign visitors.

Anucha Burapachaisri, a government spokesman, on June 12 said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had acknowledged a five-year plan (2023-2027) for steering local traditional and alternative medicine to generate revenue for the country.

The plan has three main purposes, including developing treatment plans for people suffering chronic pain, sleep disorders, and drug addiction; ensuring hospitals and factories that make herbal medicine receive the good manufacturing practice (GMP) standard; and planning to develop Thai wellness centres that will attract both local and foreign tourists.

So far, 160 of the country’s 570 wellness centres have been certified under the plan.

According to the spokesman, the five-year plan has three key goals, including increasing public confidence in traditional Thai medicine and boost the number of people using herbal medicine to cure minor health conditions from 1.48% of the population now to 15%; expanding the proportion of people seeking treatment from traditional medicine practitioners from 4.58% currently to 20%; and boosting the value of medical herbs consumed in the country to 90 billion THB (2.5 billion USD) a year by 2027.

The Thai government expects the plan will boost local wisdom while also raising foreign visitors’ confidence in Thai wellness tourism.