Government plans to grow India’s medical tourism sector

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, India received 495,056 medical travellers in 2017, compared to 427,014 in 2016 and 233,918 in 2015. IMTJ looks at the steps the country’s Ministry of Tourism has taken to grow its medical tourism sector.

The Ministry of Tourism is promoting wellness and medical travel to India by:

• providing financial assistance for participating in fairs/events/road shows approved by the ministry in overseas markets under the Marketing Development Assistance (MDA) Scheme. Financial assistance is on a 50/50 basis with limits for publicity and promotional material, organising or taking part in wellness and medical tourism promotion shows.
• giving permission for use of the Incredible India logo for wellness and medical tourism promotion events, films, literature etc.
• offering financial support for training courses focused on skill providing, skill up-gradation and skill certification for people engaged in wellness and medical tourism.
• providing space to wellness and medical tourism associations at major international fairs, at cost.
  

  The ministry has taken various steps to boost medical tourism including:

• the launch of campaigns in international markets for medical tourism under the Incredible India brand, road shows and Know India seminars.
• creation of brochures, CDs, films and other publicity materials for the promotion of wellness and medical tourism.
• promoting medical tourism on social media across various platforms.

  The Department of Commerce and Services Export Promotion Council has also launched a Healthcare Portal (www.indiahealthcaretourism.com) as a single source platform providing information to medical tourists in various languages.

In addition, the government offers an e-tourist visa which includes medical visits, while special medical and medical attendant visas are now available to international patients and their carers from most countries, to ease the travel process for medical tourists.

Finally, to provide a dedicated institutional framework to take forward medical tourism, a National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board has been constituted as an umbrella organisation that promotes this segment of tourism in an organised manner.

For further independent analysis of the medical travel sector in India, subscribe to the IMTJ Country Profiles.