Innovation Districts (ID) are inner city areas that co-locate research institutions, business incubators, start-ups, housing, services, and urban amenities. The ID is an urban planning concept that has originated in advanced economies and is being adopted in cities all over the world. This paper explores the planning of several IDs in an emerging economy megacity Bangkok, and aims to assess their implementation in light of extant literature on the international mobility, or ‘travels’, of urban planning concepts. Contrary to prior experience, it is found that the ID development in Bangkok is not a city-level endeavour but a national-level top-down project. It is led by the National Innovation Agency (NIA) and carried out in collaboration with partner universities and land developers. The implementation of the IDs remains uncertain, however, thus challenging the ‘landing’ of the concept. Drawing on data from news archives, planning documents, and personal interviews of 12 key informants in Thailand, this paper identifies four main problems in ID implementation in Bangkok. These are 1) the minor role of city government in urban development, 2) NIA’s lack of authority in urban planning, 3) the absence of civil society engagement, and 4) the lack of innovation drivers in the society. Thailand is seen to be stuck in the middle-income trap with a “talent gap” as an obstacle to economic upgrading. The root problems are the lack of coordination in urban development that leads to a non-planned organic growth of the Bangkok megacity, and the national education system that does not support innovations.