Phuket has long sold sunshine by the bucket, spa menus by the metre and sunsets so reliable they could be run by a Swiss stationmaster. Now it is leaning into something larger, more serious and rather more lucrative: wellness as a primary engine of travel demand.
BEING 2026, Southeast Asia’s dedicated B2B wellness conference, will return to Angsana Laguna Phuket on Wednesday, 2 September 2026, bringing together the people building the region’s next great tourism story. The one-day forum will run from 09:00 to 16:30 and is free to enter, with advance registration required.
The timing is no accident. The Global Wellness Institute has valued the global wellness tourism market at US$830 billion and projected it to reach US$1.35 trillion by 2028. In other words, this is no longer a soft-focus corner of the brochure. It is boardroom business, with a robe and slippers hanging neatly on the door.
Thailand is well placed to take a generous slice. Its hospitality culture, medical infrastructure, resort depth, spa heritage and traditional healing practices give it a rare hand: ancient wisdom in one pocket, clinical credibility in the other. Phuket, in particular, has moved beyond the old fly-and-flop model. The island now hosts retreats, clinics, integrative resorts, fitness operators, recovery specialists and longevity ventures that are turning wellness from a holiday extra into a reason to travel.
Curated by C9 Hotelworks, Mrs B Group and Delivering Asia, with support from the Phuket Hotels Association, BEING 2026 is designed as a working room, not a yawning ballroom. The format avoids the dreary conference ritual of dark suits, dim slides and delegates quietly negotiating with their inboxes. Instead, it will feature conversations, workshops, debates and movement sessions built to get people thinking, talking and, heaven help us, participating.
“The format is deliberately active because the subject demands it. Most conferences in this space treat wellness as a subject for observation. BEING treats it as something to be experienced,” comments Bill Barnett, Managing Director of C9 Hotelworks. “Thailand is one of the world’s great wellness destinations, and Phuket has the practitioners, clinics, retreats and resorts to prove it. Following the success of the inaugural BEING event in 2025, when 600 attendees gathered for our action-packed forum, we are excited to bring the wellness community together once again for another extraordinary day.”
The program will move through three major Conversations, exploring how wellness is reshaping hospitality, fuelling destination demand and influencing healthcare ecosystems. Twelve Workshops will bring the subject down from the clouds and onto the treatment table, with practical sessions covering AI and nutrition, longevity, recovery science and brand building. Three Movement Sessions will give delegates a hands-on experience of the disciplines being discussed, a pleasant change from merely watching someone click to the next slide.
The speaker line-up gives the event commercial weight. Contributors include Ingo Schweder, Founder and CEO of GOCO Hospitality and Managing Director of Horwath HTL; Matthew Brennan, Chief Financial Officer of Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary; Jael Fischer, Head of Development – Asia Pacific at Six Senses; Andrew Giles, Executive Director of Bumrungrad International Hospital Phuket; Helen Clarke, General Manager at Clinique La Prairie; Patcharavalai Ruangkritya, CEO and Executive Director of Mira Valley Phuket; Christian Noret, Managing Director of Blue Tree Phuket; Kosta Miachin, Founder of Vikasa; Rakesh Patel, CEO and Founder of Alta Capital; and Bobby Duchowny, Founder of Lemongrass House.
“Wellness is no longer an add-on or an afterthought; it is becoming the primary travel motivation for a huge number of people. In our session ‘Wellness as Demand: The Destination Health Imperative.’ I will be talking to four industry leaders who have built their businesses around wellness and are now reaping the benefits. As more people travel specifically for health and wellbeing, specialist operators will create long-term benefits for their destination,” said Sumi Soorian, Founder of Mrs B Group and moderator at BEING 2026.
The Wellness Exchange will add a marketplace dimension, with 27 B2B exhibitors from across the wellness supply chain showcasing products and services. Meanwhile, The BEING Table: Open Connections will offer structured roundtable networking, putting operators, investors, founders and decision-makers into the same conversation. In wellness, as in old-fashioned travel selling, the handshake still matters. The difference now is that it may be followed by a breathwork session.
For travel and hospitality businesses, the message is sharp. Wellness is no longer a cucumber-water garnish on the guest experience. It is becoming a demand driver, an investment category and a destination strategy. BEING 2026 gives Thailand’s wellness sector a timely stage, and Phuket, once again, looks ready for its close-up.
BEING 2026 takes place at Angsana Laguna Phuket on Wednesday, 2 September 2026. Attendance is complimentary, but places are limited, and advance registration is required. Register here.
By: Yves Thomas – © 2026.
Read Time: 4 minutes.
Author Bio:
There’s a quiet pull about Yves Thomas, the kind you only notice after a moment. It comes from having lived and travelled from both sides of the reception desk. A graduate of Bangkok University International, she stepped straight into Thailand’s tourism industry, learning early how much care goes into making someone else’s holiday feel effortless.
She worked with some of the country’s best destination management teams, polishing the details most travellers never see but always remember. Eventually, the road began calling louder than meetings and schedules. Yves packed a bag and went looking again, trading conference calls for compass points.
Somewhere between Chiang Mai and Copenhagen, she started writing it down. Those reflections became a blog, warm and observant.
Now based in Hua Hin and writing for Global Travel Media, Yves shares travel not as a publicist, but as a traveller, attentive, thoughtful, and deeply human.
