Publication

Abstract : The healthcare sector in India is considered to be one of the fastest growing sub-sectors with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% during the period 2015–2020. Factors like increasing income, growing geriatric population, rural penetration of healthcare, prioritization of preventive healthcare due to increasing health awareness were major factors driving the growth of healthcare sector in India. This in turn was considered as the National Health Policy focusing on Universal Health Coverage with the idea of giving health facilities and affordable rates. Since India is a vast country with lack of affordability of modern medicine, side effects, etc., Ayurveda in this respect was to bridge the supply–demand gap of healthcare in India by integrating itself with the healthcare system of the country by focusing on secondary and tertiary prevention of diseases. Ayurveda is a major contributor to Kerala’s health tourism industry. Medical or health tourism in Kerala is mostly connected with Ayurveda and often termed as Ayurvedic tourism. The objective is to evaluate the present condition of Ayurveda medical tourism in Kerala. The study makes use of both primary and secondary data. The study is explorative in nature due to the fact that contribution of Ayurveda from medical tourism is an emerging concept. Tools like exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Chi-Square, etc. are used to analyze data. The study explains the institutional profile and perception of 50 Ayurvedic medical tourism institutions surveyed from seven districts of Kerala. Of this, the seven institutions (each) from Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam and six institutions (each) are surveyed from Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Kottayam. Information is collected on the basis of the representatives of the institutions (employee of the institution working in various positions like doctors, nurses, office staff, therapist, etc.). The perception evaluation pointed toward many aspects of the tourism-related institutions, such as the need for government support, labor and regulatory regimes. The main issue which came to the limelight is the non-availability of Ayurvedic herbs. Ayurveda has a cultural legacy and the all-round healing of the body and mind is well entrenched and hence it uses.