Thailand Joins South Korea and Other Destinations as Asia’s Food and Community Tourism Surge Reshapes Travel

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Asia’s tourism boom is at the juncture of a new phase. Studies underscore that travellers are no longer building their travel itineraries around big cities, popular landmarks or busiest resorts. This shift is reflecting across Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia, wherein food tourism, local culture, community-based travel and secondary destinations are becoming powerful reasons to explore further, stay longer and spend more locally.

Official tourism data released since 15 August 2026 shows how quickly this shift is taking shape. Thailand is setting measurable targets to move visitors beyond major hotspots. South Korea is seeing strong public interest in local restaurants, bakeries and neighbourhood experiences. Malaysia is using gastronomy to connect international visitors with regional destinations. Vietnam is expanding heritage tourism into night-time and cultural experiences, while Cambodia is opening emerging regions through new tourism products and infrastructure.

Thus, for travellers, the message is clear: some of Asia’s most compelling journeys are increasingly happening beyond the obvious places.

Asia’s Food and Community Tourism Boom at a Glance

Therefore, the common thread is not simply rising tourism volume. It is better distribution of visitors, stronger local experiences and more opportunities for spending to reach communities outside established tourism centres.

Thailand Tourism Strategy Puts Secondary Destinations on the Front Line

Thailand has taken one of Asia’s most ambitious steps towards redistributing tourism.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand’s 2027 “Year of Transformation” strategy targets at least 5% growth in tourism revenue over 2026 while pursuing a 60:40 distribution of visitors between major and emerging destinations.

TAT has identified 19 priority areas and aims to increase international arrivals to those places by 10%. Its wider UNESCO Thailand Network is expected to span 29 areas and more than 55 community-based tourism destinations.

Initial branding activity is focused on:

• Chiang Rai
• Ubon Ratchathani
• Songkhla
• Trat
• Samut Songkhram

Thailand is also promoting Saraburi, Khao Yai, Rayong, Sukhothai, Kamphaeng Phet and Buri Ram more aggressively in international markets.

The scale of that push is already visible in China. TAT organised more than 2,500 cinema screenings in Shanghai, while a Nanjing television programme reached over five million viewers. A campaign activation in Changchun attracted more than 80,000 participants.

Thailand recorded 3,149,889 Chinese arrivals between 1 January and 5 August 2026.

The strategic change is significant. Thailand is no longer simply advertising lesser-known places. It is turning tourism dispersal into a measurable performance target, which could reshape how visitors move around the country.

Chiang Mai Shows How Community Tourism Can Keep Visitor Spending Local

Chiang Mai provides a practical example of what this tourism model can achieve.

The Amazing Chiang Mai Green Guide Fest is expected to attract at least 15,000 Thai and international visitors, with more than THB20 million in direct event spending and over THB100 million in wider tourism revenue for Chiang Mai.

More than 35 local food and beverage businesses are participating alongside crafts, wellness activities, cultural performances and community experiences.

Sustainability also forms part of the event. Its estimated carbon footprint is 350 tonnes, approximately 50% below the previous year.

This matters because tourism creates greater local value when travellers buy meals from independent businesses, purchase local crafts and participate in experiences created by communities.

For visitors, that makes the journey richer. For destinations, it helps tourism income travel further through the local economy.

South Korea Food Tourism Turns Everyday Places Into Travel Destinations

South Korea offers one of the clearest signals that traveller preferences are changing.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recorded 40,145 participants and 1,538,035 votes in its Korea Attractions Discovery 100X100 programme.

Food dominated several of the most popular themes.

Travellers showed particularly strong interest in:

• Good-value restaurants
• Long-running local eateries
• Seasonal dishes
• Bakery-focused journeys

Food-related subjects occupied four of the top ten categories.

Daejeon’s Sungsimdang bakery received the highest number of votes within a single topic, while Gunsan’s Leesungdang also attracted strong interest.

The programme generated 9,883 attraction selections across 100 topics, representing 6,336 unique attractions after duplicates were removed. Another 199 neighbourhood locations were added through public recommendations.

These figures measure public preference rather than actual visitor arrivals, but they reveal something valuable: a bakery, market or neighbourhood can now motivate travel just as effectively as a famous monument.

That opens new possibilities for travellers who want to discover South Korea beyond its most familiar tourism circuit.

Malaysia Uses Gastronomy to Convert International Demand Into Regional Travel

Malaysia is turning food into a destination-development tool.

Tourism Malaysia’s partnership with Foodie Media connects 45 lifestyle brands with a combined following of more than 50 million across five Southeast Asian markets.

The campaign promotes:

• Malaysian cuisine
• Heritage
• Local lifestyles
• Cultural experiences
• Emerging destinations

Penang sits at the centre of this strategy.

The “Taste of Malaysia – Flavours of Penang” programme connects regional cuisine with batik and Malay, Chinese, Indian, Eurasian and Peranakan heritage.

The demand behind that effort is substantial. Malaysia welcomed 2.6 million Chinese visitors during the first half of 2026, up 17.6% from 2.2 million in the same period of 2025.

Around 69 weekly flights directly connect Chinese cities with Penang, while wider China–Malaysia connectivity stands at roughly 771 weekly flights.

Malaysia recorded 21.2 million visitor arrivals in H1 2026, up 2.5% year on year.

The gap between overall visitor growth and Chinese visitor growth is notable. It suggests that Malaysia has an opportunity to use Penang’s combination of direct flights, food and multicultural heritage to push more international demand into regional destinations.

Vietnam’s Ninh Binh Tourism Boom Moves Beyond Day Trips

Vietnam provides some of the strongest destination-level growth figures in this group.

Ninh Binh expects more than 983,000 visitors in August 2026, up 29.81% year on year.

Official projections also include:

• Nearly 293,000 accommodation guests, up 22.80%
• Almost 358,000 guest-days, up 25.51%
• More than VND1.2 trillion in tourism revenue, up 26.03%

Ninh Binh is now expanding beyond traditional daytime heritage tourism.

The province is developing:

• Night tourism
• Cultural performances
• Community-based experiences
• Green tourism
• Traditional craft villages
• Coastal itineraries

At Hoa Lu Ancient Town, the “Anh hùng cờ lau” performance combines traditional arts, martial arts, music, circus elements and modern stage technology.

The numbers reveal an important challenge. Visitor growth is currently running faster than tourism-revenue growth. That makes longer stays and higher-value experiences increasingly important.

Ninh Binh’s next tourism opportunity may therefore be less about attracting another day visitor and more about convincing existing travellers to stay overnight, dine locally and spend on cultural experiences.

Cambodia Opens New Tourism Corridors Through Culture and Connectivity

Cambodia is tackling secondary-destination growth from two directions: creating new reasons to visit and making emerging regions easier to reach.

The Phnom Penh Tourism Development Plan 2026–2030 follows a “Clean, Smart and Green” model focused on destination quality, tourism services, visitor safety and new products.

Phnom Penh is also being positioned as a gateway for wider journeys across Cambodia.

Separately, the Ministry of Tourism is exploring film-tourism itineraries linking cultural, historical and natural sites across different provinces.

Infrastructure is strengthening that effort.

Cambodia has inaugurated 98.405 kilometres of upgraded roads in Kratie, backed by investment of nearly US$44 million.

The improved transport network is expected to support tourism and wider economic growth across the northeast.

Across four northeastern provinces, 72 proposed investment projects worth about US$2.7 billion could potentially create more than 80,000 jobs. That figure spans several economic sectors and should not be interpreted as tourism investment alone.

The deeper opportunity is clear: new cultural products become far more powerful when travellers can reach them more easily.

Why Asia’s Secondary-Destination Tourism Boom Could Reshape Travel

Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia are following different paths, but together they point towards one major transformation.

Travellers increasingly want:

• Authentic regional food
• Local cultural experiences
• Community-led tourism
• Less crowded destinations
• Longer and more meaningful stays
• Experiences that support local businesses

Thailand is attaching hard targets to visitor dispersal. South Korea is showing how food can create destination demand. Malaysia is linking gastronomy with aviation and international growth. Vietnam is extending heritage travel into a broader experience economy. Cambodia is strengthening access while building new cultural routes.

The biggest shift is therefore not simply where people travel in Asia, but why they choose a place and how their spending moves through it.

For travellers, that promises richer journeys. For communities, it creates more opportunities to benefit directly from tourism. And for destinations, the next competitive advantage may come from something far more powerful than another famous landmark: a distinctive local experience that travellers cannot find anywhere else.

In conclusion, Thailand joins South Korea and other destinations as Asia’s food and community tourism surge reshapes travel because travellers increasingly want deeper, more local experiences beyond crowded hotspots. All of Thailand’s targets for the visitors, South Korea’s discovery trends which were driven by food, Malaysia’s gastronomy policy, Vietnam’s cultural expansion and Cambodia’s regional accessibility improvements are all headed in the same direction. As a whole, they demonstrate that tourism is shifting towards a more distributed and experience-based, and locally valuable growth. It is a better itinerary, better authentic flavors and better cultural ties for travellers. It means more local spending, more staying and a more resilient tourism economy around people, place and identity for destinations.