Medical tourism has the possibility of standing as the prime driver of the growth of the Indian tourism industry. In a consistently developing economy where people are encountering a rapidly changing life, medical tourism becomes even more significant as it replenishes the body, mind and spirit by detoxification delivered by different healthcare treatments.

India is recognized as one of the authentic spiritual homes of the modern medical trend globally with its historical methods of Ayurveda, yoga, meditation, acupuncture, naturopathy, panchakarma and holistic health care among the events strived by medical travellers in India.

Globally, medical tourism is rising with 6.5 per cent yearly, more than twice as quickly as the tourism industry altogether (3.2 per cent). This section is predicted to develop even quicker through 2022 (7.5 per cent yearly). 

Glancing at these lucrative figures, destinations are today establishing medical commodities to attract additional travellers. India is recognized as an innovator in the medical sector the world. Furthermore, it is an accepted fact that India is the land of the greatly praised Ayurveda. In recent years, India has begun showcasing yoga as an aspect of medicine, which has been trending globally.

Despite this initial mover's advantage, India is yet to realise the power of this sector when it comes to the tourism industry. With a huge collection of commodities thave has been existing through the ages, India can be labelled as a goldmine of medical tourism, which requires to be explored by the international market.

The theory of medical tourism implies travelling for activities scheduled for health and well-being as the prime focus. Ordinary medical journeys encompass healthy food, spa therapies, workout, and resorts for spiritual and creative growth.

The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India in the recent few years has charted multiple schemes to further advance this sector. Additionally, luxury hotel chains and standalone boutique players have invested considerably in creating experiential medical commodities to additional captivate travellers. With these endeavours, India can quickly evolve into a highly significant medical tourism center.

Current Condition

Earlier, recognized to be a relative niche idea, today with an intense transformation in people's lifestyle, medical tourism is set to fit the mainstream. medicine industry remained to develop from niche lifestyle theory into a mainstream entity with great development possibilities.

The Indian medical tourism industry prevails primarily in the crucial sectors like Ayurveda, yoga, meditation and revitalization amongst others. If we go by researches, it is asserted that India will reach incredible heights in the medical tourism industry in the arriving year's.

Today, India is primarily led by domestic travellers for the medical sector. Growth in disposable income and consumers desire to improve their mind, as well as physical well-being, has favoured the need for these services. Likewise, rising active lifestyles characterised by work-related anxiety has been boosting market expansion across the world.

The medical industry is quickly developing in India and possesses an enormous extent. In this fresh moment of health consciousness, people yearn to understand better and willing to expend on living a full life, wellbeing as a service will develop as a dominant industry. People are looking for locations where better genuine medicine experiences can be found."

Source 

Due to the absence of concentrated and directed promotion of medical tourism, the primary source market for India still prevails the domestic market. In the previous five years, the Government has taken eager attention to expanding this sector.

The Tourism Ministry has offered 50:50 financial assistance to companies to up to Rs 10 lakh for partaking in festivals and occasions authorized by the tourism ministry in overseas markets under the Marketing Development Assistance (MDA) scheme.

The ministry has further proposed financial assistance of up to Rs 25 lakh for stakeholders partaking in tourism publicity shows. It further also proposes financial support for training classes on skill empowering.

The domestic market is our vastest customer ground. It has constantly been speculated that Westerners voyage for health but trends have changed. Indians are conscious about where they use their vacations and look at vacations as chances to replenish, rejuvenate and come back healthier to their regular lives.

The Indian medical tourism players are now looking to develop revolutionary source markets. Similar to the Indian outbound development story, today many Asian countries are witnessing alike trends. This can create more wellness source markets from within the Asia-Pacific region.

In phrases of the traveller's profile, millennial travellers are the ones who have invariably shattered the standards and explored unique experiences. The Millennials constitute the primary travelling population on the globe. Millennials have remarkable spending capacity, and they strive for cultural vigorousness and genuine experiences.

They prefer to satisfy themselves in various holistic strategies with spa gateway, detoxing purifying with food, and stimulating emotional, life-changing medicine excursion. They prefer to share their experiences of medicine moments on social media following the latest trends.

Experiences

It's a no shocker that prevailing the motherland of Ayurveda, it retains to be the primary driver for medical tourism. However intriguingly to be observed, today travellers are opting for medical tourism for several severe health problems.

Ayurveda treatments like Shirodhara, pizhichil and navarakizhi have prevailed extremely famous among the weekend visitors while naturopathy treatments like deep tissue massage, acupressure and hydrotherapy have been incredibly flourishing. However, a rising trend of patients striving treatments and therapies for spondylitis, obesity, diabetes, and ulcers."

Today one of the main challenges globally has been the sudden rise in lifestyle disorders such as diabetes, obesity, infertility, etc. Indian medicine players are catering to these problems successfully and are curating customized medications.

Travellers visit for multiple purposes such as detox, weight management, medicinal reversal (diabetes, hypertension), illness-management, rehabilitation, emotional recovery, fitness, ayurvedic panchakarma. besides medications, the components of nutrition, mental fitness, enhance sleep quality and an optimistic environment is a must for a flourishing medical tourism destination. Ayurveda has eternally concentrated on preventive care as well as therapies.

Challenges

one of the main challenges in this segment stood to preserve the integrity and genuineness of service providers. The Government has adopted an exceptionally important leap of initiating quality management with the assistance of the Quality Council of India to broaden the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Wellness Centres (NABH) certification for spa and medicine centers.

Safety and security was another challenge, tourism is a delicate wholehearted industry and medical tourist will exclusively arrive to travel the locations for serenity, rejuvenation, meditation, yoga, health, well being accordingly the initial foremost problem will be safe the y and security of the traveller because of presents of the fear because which we cannot promote. it is also considered Female travellers don't prefer to travel to India because it's highly unsafe.

Lack of infrastructure persists another challenge that simulates this sector. enhancing the brand image of India will boost the promotion of the sector tremendously. Medical tourism locations don't pertain to hectic cities but safe and serene natural surroundings add the additional table challenge which the industry is encountering is the scarcity of skill. the supply of skilled personnel is declining. The supply of specialists and authorized personnel in the region of Ayurveda and Ayurvedathy has been declining over the years. Additionally, there is a portion of medical practitioners that are presently adamant to merely communicate in the regional medium. Nowadays there is a ton of awareness to boost the language base to encompass international languages as well.

The medical tourism industry has incredible potential and can contribute to both the travellers in their wellness and the service providers in the aspect of economic growth. Facing the above-mentioned challenges can promote medical tourism in India multi-folds.