What does it mean for a national government to communicate green tourism, and for whom does that communication actually work? This study takes up these questions through a retrospective qualitative case study of Thailand’s Green Tourism Promotion Strategy (2017–2021) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on policy document analysis, semi-structured interviews with nine government officials, and four focus group discussions involving 20 tourism stakeholders, the study examines how different actor groups, policymakers, tourism businesses, and the general public, understood and responded to sustainability-framed communication about destinations in Thailand. The findings show that government officials and senior policy practitioners consistently framed green tourism within a holistic sustainability agenda, whereas local business owners and tourists typically understood it in narrower terms, principally as environmental protection, waste reduction, or nature-based experience. Moreover, digital platforms proved indispensable during the pandemic, sustaining destination visibility and circulating messages about responsible travel; yet the reach of this communication was uneven, and the alignment it was supposed to produce was largely absent. On this basis, the study argues that green tourism destination branding in Thailand needs to be reconceptualized: not as a message transmitted downward from policy to public, but as a shared meaning constructed through more inclusive, segmented, and culturally grounded communication, one that actively involves local intermediaries and bridges the gap between official sustainability rhetoric and lived tourism practice.

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