India Tourism is getting ready to launch a comprehensive website- ‘Heal in India’ to help tourists from worldwide who are seeking to get well with easy-to-follow and book treatments at particular hospitals and destinations. India is sought by international visitors because of its world-class medical facilities available at affordable costs. Post-medical holistic healing and spiritual offerings for those who are wanting, also help in providing complete well-being.
Dr Vinod Kumar Paul, Member, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) AAYOG, Government of India, said at The National Tourism Ministers’ Conference in Dharamshala: “India is fast emerging as a medical and wellness destination. It is among the most affordable medical treatment destinations. We are taking specific decisions to further improve the segment.”
Healing concoctions
Metropolitan cities of New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad and tier two cities like Cochin, Trivandrum, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Pune, Coimbatore and Vishakapatnam are already attracting international visitors for treatment.
India, in April 2022, announced AYUSH Visa, especially to facilitate health seekers to the country. There are 140 NABH-accredited AYUSH hospitals in India. 40 of those offer traditional medicine and 33 among those are private enterprises. AYUSH is an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy, the six Indian systems of medicine prevalent and practised in India for ages.
Heal in India- a multilingual website that offers comprehensive service to track the full journey of the patient, from pre-arrival to post-care, is ready to be launched. One can choose a particular doctor from a relevant hospital at a chosen destination in India and also know about the facilities and costs of the treatment through the website before choosing a treatment.
Traditional Medicine
Lav Agarwal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said: “India is known as Pharmacy of the World for its medicinal offering. We now aim to provide an integrated treatment where modern medical treatment is substantiated with a holistic cure of all body functions and also enhance the spirit of wellness.”
India has 1.3 million plus registered Allopathic doctors and 800,000 AYUSH doctors. These doctors are fluent in English, besides offering quality treatments. India’s time-tested healing systems have been continuously evolving to utilise available abundant herbs and medicines from the Himalayas, Western Ghats and other organic and naturally rich regions to get the best of their medicinal utilities through research. Yoga and Ayurveda are already popular worldwide.
Dr Madiventan, Minister for Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu, said: “Chennai, Coimbatore and Vellore in Tamil Nadu are three popular destinations visited by medical and wellness seekers from India as well as abroad. Chennai alone handled INR 10 bn worth of this segment in 2019-20.”
Likewise, Kolkata in the West Bengal state of India is considered among the best for Cancer treatment. The covid pandemic, which was bad for tourism, created a necessity and an opportunity for the upgradation of medical facilities at many hospitals.
Western Ghats
Dr Paul said: “Our vision is to make India a destination for holistic wellbeing. We have identified 61 countries as our MVT markets and have included the segment under Champions Service Sector Scheme (CSSS).” CSSS is created for focussed attention on 12 key service sectors of the country, which also include Tourism and Hospitality. India’s Government has also created an institutional framework for Medical Value Tourists (MVT). It includes the Ministry of Health, AYUSH, Tourism, Civil Aviation and Foreign affairs along with health Secretaries from Kerala, Telangana, Maharashtra and Delhi and industry heads of connected segments.
Patients as well as their families can also enjoy India’s tourism and hospitality services while visiting for treatments. India currently stands at 12th position in wellness tourism with a $ 6.7 bn market share. The target is to be among the top ten in three years and to be among the top 5 wellness-providing countries by 2030.
Written by Madhura Katti
