Incredible India: Medical Tourism brochure and CD were launched by Ministry of Tourism in August 2006 at New Delhi. It was released by Ms. Ambika Soni, Hon’ble Minister of Tourism. This was supplemented with the launch of the price band that mentioned about the different specialties and the prices along with the list of hospitals by Indian Healthcare Federation an NGO affiliated to Confederation of Indian Industry Ministry of Tourism, Government of India participated at the World Travel Mart 2006 in London in November 2006 and at International Tourism Bourse (ITB) at Berlin in March 2007. The objective of participation was to promote India as the new emerging Healthcare destination and disseminate information on Medical Value Travel. The response was good and generated a lot of queries for promoting medical tourism in UK from potential tourists, medical tourism companies, health insurance companies, travel and tour operators. Ministry of Tourism participated in New York Times Travel show in February 2007. There was also a session organized by India Tourism Office, New York, Indian High Commission and CII to promote Indian Healthcare Services and invite investment into India. A new Category of Medical Visa has been introduced which can be given for a specific purpose to foreign tourist coming to India for medical treatment. This visa which is initially issued to a patient with a companion for a period of one year can be extended upto three years after fulfilling certain conditions and recommendations from the accredited medical authorities and concerned visa authorities. Supplement on Incredible India : Global Healthcare Destination has been distributed with UK Reader’s Digest to all its subscribers
Medical tourism has gained momentum in India over the past few years, a trend underpinned by India’s low-cost advantage and the emergence of new high-quality healthcare service providers. In India, approximately 1,50,000 patients arrived in 2004 from across the globe for medical treatment, from countries like US, UK, Middle East, Africa, SAARC countries. In the last year we have seen an increase of approximately 20% in the medical tourists arriving in India. The medical tourism market in India, estimated at US$ 333 Million in 2004 grew by about 25 per cent and is predicted to become a US$ 2 billion-a-year business opportunity by 2012.
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