Horwath HTL, the global hospitality consulting brand which joined forces with GOCO in 2013, has produced a Hotel Yearbook for 2014 which provides foresight and insight into innovations in the global hotel industry.

Co-authored by GOCO’s CEO and founder Ingo Schweder and Horwath HTL's health and wellness manager Jennifer Wilson and Noppawan Siriphol, the yearbook highlights 2013 snapshots of the wellness industry in different countries across the world, and predicts future market developments for each nation.

The 2013 snapshot for Thailand, for example, shows that the wellness industry is largely driven by international consumers pursuing spa and medical tourism. According to figures from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), health and wellness tourism accounted for 858,340 trips in 2012 – generating total revenues of US$967m (€718m, £567m) from medical, health, wellness and spa tourists.

The business scenarios for 2014 and beyond mentioned in the yearbook include the expectation that wellness tourism will continue to grow in Thailand, becoming a market worth US$32bn (€24bn, £19bn) by 2017, according to statistics from Euromonitor.

The Thai government has established a policy to promote the country as a medical hub focusing on four main areas: medical treatment, health promotion, traditional Thai medicine/alternative medicine and health products. Led by the nation’s Board of Investment (BOI) and the Ministry of Public Health, the policy is to be implemented between now and 2016, with the goal of bringing US$25bn (€19bn, £15bn) to the country.

In order to carry out this policy, the BOI has included financial incentives for key players, including income tax exemption for health care providers, additional benefits for pharmaceutical businesses, tariff reduction for importers of medicinal ingredients and medicine, plus additional benefits for qualified foreign companies operating in Thailand – including spa and wellness consultants.

The study anticipates that hotel/resort spas will continue to generate the largest revenue and growth – if Thailand can secure political stability – but the development of destination spas will remain stagnant.