MEDICAL TOURISM in India

Foreign patients coming to India can get more than cheaper medical aid — they can now get free holidays, spa treatments, even a sample of adventure tourism and visit India’s rural areas to get first-hand knowledge of life in the Indian villages.

Planning a trip to India to avail of surgery or tackle an ailment? India certainly has some of the best doctors available and comfortable hospitals that will give you the best without charging you the roof. But now, under the Indian Tourism Ministry’s “Visit India 2009” initiative you can also avail of many frills that will turn your medical trip into a unique holiday too. You can recuperate in special spas, avail of the fabled Kerala massages and treatments that leave your body nournished and are a part of an Ayurvedic system of alternative healing that is thousands of years old. Or, once you have recuperated, you can try out some adventure tourism or rural tourism, courtesy the Indian government.

Sujit Bannerjee, secretary, Ministry of Tourism, said: “In 2009 which will be known as ‘Visit India Year’, we are providing medical tourists a chance to explore options like adventure tourism, spa tourism and rural tourism. The cost for these packages will be borne by the government and hopefully will attract more medical tourists to India.”

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