Ayush visa, a gamechanger
Welcoming the recently announced Ayush visa, inbound players say there is a need to take these alternative therapies originating in India to international tourists in a big way.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced that India will soon introduce a special Ayush visa category for foreign nationals who want to come to India to take advantage of Ayush therapy. The announcement sent a ray of hope among the inbound tourism industry.
Medical tourism boon
Sharing how India was already making waves in terms of medical tourism, EM Najeeb, Senior Vice President, IATO, said, “PreCovid India was the hub of medical tourism taking nearly 18 per cent of the global market. In 2017, 495,056 patients visited India to seek medical care. This points to the fact that this high potential and bounce would take this sector to higher heights in the future. Looking backward, the earlier estimation was that by mid–2020, India's medical tourism sector would have an estimated growth worth US$5–6 billion.”
Najeeb believes that Ayush visa is a great advantage for promoting medical value as well as alternative therapy travel to India. "We should encourage and ensure that all the international insurance companies are recognised by the hospitals here. Also, the facilities here with the accredited hospitals and wellness centres should be widely publicised in the source markets from where we expect the patients to come here, like South eastern and European countries where long waiting periods are there. Wide publicity should be given digitally as well as through embassies,” he said.
Alternative takes centrestage
The Ayush visa, believes Rajiv Mehra, President, IATO, will help business in India. “Whoever will come with this visa, will stay here for a long time, which will always help the business, especially for
the hotels and the tour operators with whom they have booked,” he said.
Ravi Gosain, Vice President, IATO, also agrees that Ayush visa is the step in the right direction by the Union government. “There are many people who come for healing purposes to India and not just regular medical treatment.
Ayush is the way forward for them and Ministry of Ayush is aggressive in promoting through embassies overseas. It will be a good step and there will be a new segment for people who just come for alternative therapies and not specifically for critical medical care,” he added.
According to Rajnish Kaistha, Secretary, IATO, the government’s idea behind the Ayush visa is to give a proper name of Ayush tourism to India’s centuries old healing traditions like Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, our old medicines and yoga. “With Ayush visa, the government is looking at not only boosting medical tourism, but also alternate medicines aiming at holistic healing of the body,” he added.
Getting inbound interest
Sunil Mishra, Honorary Treasurer, IATO, said that they are getting "very good" response from the European market for Ayurveda and Yoga. “The response is good in that category and we can promote India,” he added.
States' focus on wellness
Prateek Hira, Chairman, IATO, UP Chapter agrees that India is being projected as a wellness and alternative therapy destination. “The government's focus on wellness is one of the major reasons for tourists visiting India,” he added.
What more is needed
Debjit Dutta, Chairman, IATO West Bengal Chapter, said, “I am happy to note that the MOT is focusing more on medical and wellness tourism in view of the recent policy. The launch of Ayush visa for traditional medical tourism is certainly going to be a major step to boost inbound traffic to India with a theme ‘Heal in India’.”
Sejoe Jose, Chairman - IATO Southern Region, said that India, despite being the birthplace of Ayurveda was losing a lot of wellness business to Sri Lanka and other South Eastern countries. “Ayush visa will definitely help India regain that lost business and bring in a lot more conections to the country. The government must come out with the benefits for tourists coming into India because we are already very cost-effective when it comes to medical tourism. Also, now the world is focusing a lot on Ayurveda and Yoga. If the benefits of Ayurveda are showcased as a dedicated promotional campaign, I am sure wellness tourism will flourish in India.”
Innovative solution
Sharing his views, Sunil Singh Rana, Chairman – IATO Uttarakhand Chapter, said, “The introduction of Ayush visa category is a very innovative idea not only to promote tourism in India, but to showcase the ancient medical science of India to the world. This will be a superb strategy of crossselling and making India a global brand in the alternative medicine segment along with boosting inbound tourism.