Report suggests using wellness and medical themes to build tourism to India

The Ficci-Yes Bank report on tourism ‘India Inbound Tourism: Decoding Strategies for Next Stage of Growth’, says targeted areas should include health and wellness and medical tourism.

The Ficci-Yes Bank report on tourism ‘India Inbound Tourism: Decoding Strategies for Next Stage of Growth’, highlights the need to create new and unique themes to promote tourism and also provide niche experiences to international tourists.

National and state bodies need to work together to improve destination infrastructure, connectivity and technology. India may have 10 million foreign tourist arrivals, but the potential is much more.

The report says that there is an urgent need to create unique themes to shape inbound tourism by providing niche experiences and luxury tourism so that people across the globe consider visiting India.

The report urged state government bodies Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, among others to develop a comprehensive ecosystem and get more involved in the process of making India the most preferred tourists’ destination.

The report recommends states to undertake new policies, generate exciting marketing campaigns and numerous initiatives like the sustainable use of existing resources to further enhance tourism in the country.

The report outlines the need for incentivising private players to invest in various tourism projects and placing the tourism sector under the Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS).

The report suggests standardising the format for collection and publication of tourism data; supporting the emergence of Indian start-ups and recognising the state-owned tourism units that can be operated on suitable PPP models.

India was one of the first big medical tourism destinations and has huge potential, but the government and hospitals assumed that all that they had to do was be offer low cost treatment and people would flock in. It has taken years to get the government to regulate and promote medical tourism. Continuing the momentum will require more policy dynamism as well as heightened synergy between multiple layers of the industry. View further IMTJ analysis of medical tourism in India.