Hugely popular as a ‘The Beach’ destination among the travellers from national and international fronts, Goa is now readying to develop the Medical Tourism segment to diversify its portfolio and provide more opportunities to the travellers who wish to explore the state, as well as the stakeholders of this industry.
Medical tourism is among the fastest growing sectors in India and abroad. The combination of skilled doctors and low cost of treatment has made various states of India a popular choice among the foreign tourist of this segment. The total number of such visitors in 2017 was 4.95 lakh, as compare to 2.34 lakh in 2015, and 4.27 lakh in 2016.
The NITI Aayog has identified medical tourism as a major source of Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEE). India has around 18% (as on July 2018) of the global medical tourism market. Its medical value travel was pegged at $3 billion in 2015, and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 15%, according to a report by FICCI and IMS Health.
So taking a step forward to explore more opportunities, to re-visit the latest initiatives taken by the Government, and to boost the growth of this segment the Department of Tourism, Government of Goa has conducted a panel discussion at the outset of GITM organized from October 23rd to
25th at Panaji.
Chief Minister of the State Dr Pramod Sawant, while addressing the delegates at the inaugural session of the Third Edition of GITM said that Goa is doing well in sectors of health, education, infrastructure and industry. He announced that the Government is planning to introduce legislation to promote the sector.
“To expand medical tourism in hinterland areas of the state, we need to amend several laws; we are on the job and expecting to make it by next assembly session. Also, we are ensuring that tourist who comes to Goa for medical treatment must get proper and world class services,”
said Dr Sawant.
“To create conducive atmosphere for health tourism in the state, we are ensuring that the investors will get all kind of help and assurance to resolve any issue pertaining to their investment in the state,” he added.
While elaborating further on the various developments in the tourism sector the Chief Minister said: “The work of new International Airport at Mopa (Mopa Airport) is underway and we are hopeful to start the same by 2022. Also, we have conducted Vibrant Goa Summit recently where the investors from all over have shown their interest to invest in Goa.”
Secretary Tourism J Ashok Kumar said: “Medical tourism is an emerging segment for Goa and we are already on the job to get more from it. We have a list of hospitals that have their setup and proving world class heath care facilities. However, we are endeavoring to have more such hospitals in near future to cater the large number of tourist we are targeting to Goa.”
“Along with this, we are concentrating on the Wellness Tourism as well, so that anybody who doesn’t have any ailment can also come for a spiritual rejuvenation. We are trying to have more Wellness Centers that can provide world class ayurveda, yoga and spa facilities. Like Kerala, we are focusing on this segment which is our priority area at the moment,” he further informed.
Speaking on the same lines, Nikhil Desai, Managing Director, Goa Tourism Development Corporation said: “We are getting a strong foothold in this segment we have good number of hospitals who are already catering the medical tourist.”
“Dental treatment has emerged very popular, especially among the tourists coming from UK because this treatment is not only of high class and top quality (because most of the dentist practicing here are trained in UK and Europe), but it is probably one fifth of the cost as compare to the treatment in these countries. So for a dental treatment tourist gets a free holiday, how better than that,” explained Desai while elaborating more on this.
“In Wellness segment we have all kinds of treatments, whether it is Western, South East Asian and traditional Indian Ayurvedic Treatment is very much available in Goa,” he added.
With a growth of 3 percent over 2017, Goa has received 80 lakh tourists in the year 2018. There has been 9.3 lakh (+2.7%) foreign tourist with an average stay of 9 days, and 71 lakh (+4.8%) domestic tourist with an average stay of 5 days in 2018. There have been 813 charter flights with 2.2 lakh passenger in 2018. A total of 40 cruise ships were arrived with 51000 passengers in the same year. As per the latest statistics available, Goa has received 27 lakh tourists up to
May 2019.
