Wellness tourism policy to be rolled out on June 21: Mahesh

The tourism ministry will roll out its wellness tourism policy on yoga and other indigenous healing practises on the International Day of Yoga on June 21, Union minister Mahesh Sharma said today.
The medical tourism policy will be announced four weeks after rolling out the wellness guidelines, the tourism minister said while participating in a meeting of the National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board.
"We want to make it a foolproof system. Some more inputs are yet to come from the stakeholders and I hope in four weeks it (medical tourism policy) will be out," Sharma said.
The government is promoting wellness and medical tourism by getting hospitals and wellness professionals to register with the tourism department.

"We are not regulating anything but the facility should be available transparently," the minister said.
The tourism department is also working on its website to have a single window system for the stakeholders, he said.

The meeting was attended by representatives of health services and tour operators bodies, officials of health, home, commerce and tourism ministries who extended their suggestions about the policies being framed.
Sharma invited all the representatives to provide their feedback and roadmaps so that they could be deliberated and included in the policies.
Medical and wellness tourism in the country has increased by up to 25 per cent in the last two years.

"The prime minister is very concerned about the tourism potential of the country. He also feels that the potential of medical and wellness tourism needs to be reaped," the minister said.
The growth in overseas tourist arrivals in 2016 stood at 10.7 per cent with a total of 88.90 lakh footfalls as compared to 80.27 lakh in 2015.