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What is the News?
The Minister of Tourism has informed the Lok Sabha about the National Strategy and Roadmap for Medical and Wellness Tourism.
What is Medical Tourism and Wellness Tourism?
Medical Tourism: It may be defined as ‘activities related to travel and hosting a foreign tourist who stays at least one night at the destination region for the purpose of maintaining, improving or restoring health through medical intervention’.
Wellness Tourism: It is defined as “travel associated with the goal of maintaining or enhancing one’s personal well-being and includes the pursuit of physical, mental, spiritual or environmental wellness while travelling for either leisure or business.”
What is the National Strategy and Roadmap for Medical and Wellness Tourism?
Aim: To provide an institutional framework, strengthening the ecosystem for medical and wellness tourism, developing a brand and ensuring quality assurance.
Key Features of the Strategy:
– Health insurance portability by way of extended insurance coverage.
– Developing medical clusters for foreign patients.
– Enhancing Accessibility for medical value travel
– Development of special wellness tourism zones may be encouraged at the state level offering comprehensive end-to-end services for health, medical and wellness using private/public partnerships.
– Capacity building: With the anticipated increase in inflow, the groundwork for policy alignment, infrastructure development as well as skilling needs to be expedited to be future-ready.
– Online medical tourism website: The existing website needs a major makeover with the integration of all services a medical traveller would need, while also carrying advisories, regulations and information for transparency and ease.
Source: This post is based on the article “Ministry of Tourism has formulated a National Strategy and Roadmap for Medical and Wellness Tourism: Union Minister” published in PIB on 15th Mar 2022.
