Travelling For Health

India’s immense tourism appeal and potential are not only because of its natural splendours, historical legacies, deep religious resonance and its exciting wildlife and adventure offerings.

- Jhuma Biswas

The country has also emerged as an important medical tourism destination. Medical tourism is generally regarded as the practice of travelling to another country with the sole or primary objective to seek medical services. The medical tourism industry in India was worth 3 billion USD in 2015. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Tourism, India’s medical tourism industry could grow to 9 billion USD by 2020.

Availability of skilled doctors and topnotch healthcare infrastructure at much lesser cost as compared to that of many developed countries, and the growing popularity of yoga and Ayurveda in the west are some of the reasons for the growing popularity of India as a medical tourism destination. People from developed countries are travelling in hordes to India to avail our relatively affordable (as compared to many countries in the west) but top-notch healthcare facilities.

According to www.indiahealthcaretourism. com, India has a good number (22) of JCI (Joint Commission International) accredited hospitals and compares well with other countries in Asia. These set of approved hospitals in India can provide care at par or above global standards.

As per the same website, India has the largest pool of doctors and paramedics in South Asia (1.2 million Allopathic doctors. 0.17 million dental surgeons, 2 million nurses).

A Buoyant Sector

No wonder, medical tourism in India has seen an amazing growth of 111 percent during 2015-2017. In 2015, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs 2,33,918 foreign tourists came to India for medical purposes. And according to the information from the Ministry of Home Affairs, 4,95,056 foreign tourists visited India during 2017 for medical purposes. According to the information provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs, 4,27,014 foreign tourists visited India for medical purposes during 2016.