Medical tourism is growing in India because of cost effective and quality medical treatments offered to tourists and this sector further possesses enormous potential to grow.
Acceleration in growth of Indian tourism industry is confirmed, condition being coalition of states government, travel specialist/agents, hospitality industry, and natives to encourage medical tourism in the country. International seminar—Maharashtra Vision II—organized by MEDC (Maharashtra Economic Development Council), on May 3, 2007 had identified importance of medical tourism.
‘‘Medical tourism is one of the most lucrative industry as it is anticipated to attract tourists from world over especially the UK, South Africa, Canada and Malaysia, and is expected to grow into a $1.5 billion industry by 2010,’’ said Abhijeet Patil of Raja Rani Health Alliance, in news published by The financial Express.
India has carved a niche for itself in medical tourism sector; reason being presence of finest quality professionals in every field of medicine. Privatization of health services has lead to fast emergence of medical tourism.
An amalgamation of aspects like cost effective medical treatment, superior medical attention, lesser waiting time for treatments and English-communicating staff has worked as an add on factors to increase India's attractiveness as a destination for medical tourism. Moreover, affordability of intercontinental tour, approving currency exchange rates in global economy, technology improvement and elevated standards of medical care has positively affected growth of Indian medical tourism.
Rich tourists from Middle East and European nations visit India to benefit from medical care in addition with conventional Indian rehabilitation techniques like ayurveda, yoga, meditation, and allopathy. Some private hospitals have also come up with packaged medical services including medical treatment, airport to hospital bed car service, Internet access in room, and personal chefs.
As per a research analyst at RNCOS, “India’s tertiary healthcare sector is trotting for global recognition. Sanitized hospital infrastructures are adding fuel to growth. Government intervention for positive reasons can further propel the growth of healthcare sector and soon the dream of profitable medical tourism can turn into reality. Furthermore, if tapped properly, medical tourism possess the potential to develop into major foreign exchange earner for country owing to reason that affluent patients are not really willing to wait in long queues in Europe, neither they are ready to incur high expenses of medical treatment in US.”
Related Market Research Reports:
Booming Medical Tourism in India
Asian Medical Tourism Analysis (2008-2012)
Global Pharmaceutical Market Forecast to 2012
