India Welcomes Medical Tourists
Web Desk
India has positioned itself as a destination for medical treatment with people from all parts of the world flocking the land as it quotes reasonable, quality service in health with a cost less than 60-90 per cent when comparing with the rest of the globe.
photo courtesy :astermedcity.com
With the number of estimated tourist arrivals is expected to double over the next four years, the Indian government forecast that medical tourism would fetch over 6 billion tourists in 2018 and 9 billion by 2020, with the current estimate in value terms of 3 billion dollars.
Top list in the segment are dentistry, cosmetics, cardio vascular, and orthopaedics. It is one of the perfect areas in which the Government of India is planning to improvise growth with tourist circuits combining modern medicines and traditional medicines such as Ayurveda.
There has been constant growth in the sector with 20 per cent increase between 2014 and 2018. Currently, India is ranked at 2nd in terms of medical tourist arrival with Brazil on 4th, Turkey at 3rd, and Malaysia topping the list.
Our major strength in the field is qualified doctors, nurses and technicians that attract most arrivals.More number of tourists are coming from places like South East as well as from the Middle East.
photo courtesy :rajagirihospital.com
For a hip replacement surgery in US, it will cost 50,000 dollars whereas a tourist has to spend 8,250 dollars in Vietnam and a meagre 6,000 dollars in India. The major strength of India is the fluent English speaking doctors, whereas countries like Thailand and China are far behind this. Moreover, most of the doctors in India are trained from US and they are aware of the patient care and standard practices in those countries.
Hoteliers as well as travel agents have tie ups with various hospitals that act as a link between the tourists and the medical centres/hospitals. Also, Government of India offers tax exemptions, fast medical visa for patients and their family members for up to a year, which also attracts the tourists.