Who's Coming, Why

• Over 1,50,000 medical tourists came to India last year
  
• Numbers growing by at least 15 per cent every year
  
• Ten per cent of all patients are foreigners, say top hospitals
  
• Most sought after treatments: cardiac care, spinal surgery, cosmetic surgery, joint replacement, dental work

(Source: CII-McKinsey report)

Health Tourism Ayurvedic tourism earned Kerala Rs 6,000 crore last year. Around 1,45, 000 foreigners tried out ayurveda in Kerala.

Nationalities of foreign patients earlier: SAARC region, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, other parts of Africa, CIS countries and the Middle East, especially Oman and Yemen

New trends from 2003: patients from the US, UK and Canada, escaping high costs and waiting lists. Also from Europe, Australia and New Zealand for procedures not covered by insurance such as cosmetic surgery, obesity treatment, and new techniques like hip resurfacing

Destinations: Around 30 private tertiary hospitals, mainly in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore; but also Chennai, Calcutta Thiruvananthapuram, Coimbatore and Hyderabad. Includes hospital groups like Apollo, Wockhardt, Fortis, Max, Escorts.

At an Indian medical tourism expo in the UK last year, 25 per cent of visitors were seeking medical treatment in India

Two-Way Street
Indian hospitals venturing abroad: Apollo in joint ventures in Dhaka and Colombo; to set up and run hospitals and clinics in Yemen and Saudi Arabia

Foreign healthcare groups entering India: Parkway Holdings of Singapore in tie-up with Apollo in Calcutta; with Asian Heart Institute and Research Centre in Mumbai; International chain Columbia Asia has a 75-bed multi-speciality hospital in Bangalore