The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) has extended its support to the medical and travel industry to push medical and wellness tourism in the country. At a recent meeting in Mumbai, Dr Jagdish Patil, MD, MTDC; Kishori Gadre, General Manager, MTDC and Sushil Bhatt, Chief Executive, Forvol International Services, addressed a gathering of medical and dental professionals and hoteliers to discuss the potential of medical and wellness tourism as well as gather suggestions on how India can cash in on it.
Bhatt spoke of countries like Hungary, which receives visitors from UK and Ireland; Mexico, which receives patients from USA; and Turkey, which welcomes Western Europeans, among others, who have built up their medical tourism segment by offering cheaper medical facilities to these nationals. “We provide cost effective best treatment. Our expertise needs to be well promoted, especially dentistry and untouched aspects of Ayurveda,” he opined.
The attendees suggested that a discussion is necessary with the travel trade in other countries through whom India can promote its medical facilities. Bhatt further added that resorts in upcoming tourist destinations in Maharashtra like Tarkarli should tie up with hospitals for treatments combined with holidays. There was also talk of tying up with medical insurance agencies in the target countries who can sell India as a medical tourism destination to customers. In addition, Bhatt emphasised the need to find a way to cater to non-English speaking countries that can be major source markets.
“We need to have a blueprint in place mapping out potential target groups and the measures to be taken, and highlighting where the government’s help is needed. I propose that a core group be formed including hospitality and travel industry stakeholders, insurance companies, medical professionals, alternative medicine personnel and the government for the same. We should meet again at the end of December to discuss the roadmap,” Patil added.
Gadre suggested that destinations under the ‘Clean India’ campaign should be adopted for medical tourism as clean destinations would be perfect to showcase to foreigners. She further stated that once the roadmap is in place, MTDC will set aside tourism funds to promote medical tourism. The core group will be headed by Bhatt, and a blueprint of their plans will be presented to MTDC in four weeks time, Patil concluded.
