Focus on visas, infrastructure to boost medical tourism: experts

Visas need to be issued faster, and infrastructure upgraded to international standards for India to tap the $700 million medical tourism market, which it stands to lose to Singapore, experts say.

"Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Middle East and Africa, especially Nigeria, Ethiopia and Sudan are the biggest markets for India for medical tourism," Indian Clinical Research Institute (ICRI) CEO Rajiv Verma said.

As far as Bangladesh is concerned, which constitutes 50 per cent of the medical tourism market for India, the issue is the 'MVisas' (medical category visas).

"It takes 15 days to get MVisas here whereas in Singapore, you get it overnight. We are losing a number of Bangladeshi medical tourists to Singapore because of this, despite scoring high in quality and affordability," Verma said.

The other overriding factor is "good roads and more number of airports of international calibre which we need to develop," he said.

Above all, the government needs to play a pivotal role in promoting India as an attractive medical tourist destination, just the way Singapore Tourism Board does, Verma said.

"Singapore, which gets 90,000 medical tourists a year, earns close to USD four billion annually through medical tourism," he said.

"Almost 80 per cent of medical tourists here from Bangladesh get split between Chennai and Kolkata, Bangalore gets only 20 per cent," he added.

Founder Chairman of Narayana Hrudayalaya hospitals, Dr. Devi Shetty, said India needs to tap the Middle East and South African markets.
    
"Visa regulations have to change. A person, when he or she is a patient, has to be treated differently," he said.
    
"We must not only have more number of airports, but more direct flights and more airline operators," Shetty said.
    
For India to become a numero uno medical tourism destination, the hospitality sector needs to gear up in a big way like Thailand, which has 10,000 five-star hotels, he said.
    
According to Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation Managing Director Vinay Luthra, state governments have to realise the importance of wellness tourism, and include it as part of their tourism masterplan the way Karnataka has done.
    
"The onus also lies on the national medical authority to lay down guidelines for accreditation of hospitals.The tourism department can then promote such accredited hospitals," he said.