Details of number of medical tourists arrived in India during the last three years and the current year is given below:

Year	Medical Tourists (in lakh)
2020	1.83
2021	3.04
2022	4.75
2023* (Jan-Oct)	5.04

*Provisional

Source: Bureau of Immigration

As conveyed by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has announced loans of $14.8 billion to boost the infrastructure and announced working capital or personal loans to companies operating in the tourism industry to restart after the hit they took in the covid-19 phase. All major companies and hospitals are now focused on building state-of-the-art hospitals. Apollo Hospitals, MAX hospitals, ASIAN hospitals, SHALBY hospitals, Fortis hospitals, Manipal group are just a few names that are invested in tier-II and tier-III cities. Specialty procedures like dental implants, cosmetic surgeries, which one would put off due to time and distance involved, are now a trend to be followed in these tier-II and tier-III cities.

As per the information given by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) provides accreditation for healthcare organizations.

International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) has accredited NABH as an Organization. The hospitals accredited by NABH have international recognition. This provides boost to medical tourism in the country.

NABH also provides accreditation to Medical Value Travel Facilitator MVT Facilitators, a largely unregulated segment within the medical tourism sector.

Ministry of Tourism has revised the guidelines for the Scheme of Market Development Assistance (MDA) for promotion of Domestic Tourism in November 2020 to enhance the scope and reach of the Scheme, so as to provide maximum benefits to the stakeholders including the Medical Tourist Service Providers. The details of the financial assistance provided under Market Development Assistance (MDA) for promotion of Domestic Tourism is given as under:

S. No.	Year	Amount Released (in Rs.)
1	2021-22	6,86,237
2	2022-23	7,06,668
3	2023-24(till 14.12.2023)	6,44,213
	Total	20,37,118

In order to boost Medical Tourism in the country, Ministry of Tourism has formulated a National Strategy and Roadmap for Medical and Wellness Tourism.

This information was given by Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and DoNER Shri G. Kishan Reddy in Lok Sabha today.

—-