The medical faculty of India in collaboration with the tourism industry has worked together to provide cost-effective treatment to people across the globe. With the privatization of medical care in India, evolved the recent and popular trend of treatment along with the fun of a vacation, better known as medical tourism in India. Asian countries are immerging as the major destinations for medical tourism industry, emerging destinations include Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Services under this term typically sought by travelers include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as joint replacement (knee/hip), orthopedics, neurology, oncology, organ transplants, cardiac surgery, dental surgery, and cosmetic surgeries.

India’s well-equipped hospital infrastructure and the low cost of treatment, compared to developed countries, make it a preferred destination for medical tourism.

Despite the economic slowdown, medical tourism in India is the fastest growing segment of tourism industry, offering a great potential in the medical tourism industry.

This sector is increasingly gaining popularity on account of factors such as a robust pharmaceuticals industry in India, a growing insurance market and development of highly advanced private and public sector healthcare delivery centres close to tourism destinations. Other factors such as low cost, scale and range of treatments provided by multi-speciality hospitals in the country also add to its attractiveness as a medical tourism destination.

In addition to the existence of modern medicine, indigenous medical practitioners are providing their services across the country with more than 3,000 hospitals and 726,000 registered practitioners catering to the needs of traditional Indian healthcare. A number of Indian hotels will tie up with professional organizations in a range of wellness fields to enter the wellness services market.

As per recent studies the Indian medical tourism industry is growing at 25 per cent annually into a US$ 2.5 billion business by 2012, due to rising trend of alliances between hospitals and hoteliers, to cater to the growth in the sector. During the same period, foreign exchange earnings from tourism increased by more than 13 per cent to reach US$ 11.39 billion. The boom of medical tourism industry has prompted the setup of many hotels, due to inflow of many foreign patients and thus a higher ARR (average room rate). Though hospitals typically do not have any revenue-sharing model with hotels, the perceptive works well for hospitals as they get their rooms freed up for other patients.

I would also like to add that, it's not only patients from foreign countries. People in India who need long-term treatment also use this wellness eco-system.

However, the story is not about cost advantage mainly. It has a very high success rate and a growing credibility in its catch.

• Indian specialists have performed over 500,000 major surgeries and over a million other surgical procedures including cardio-thoracic, neurological and cancer surgeries, with success rates at par with international standards.
• The good reputation of Indian doctors in the US and UK has helped develop confidence in medical services in India
• The success rate of cardiac bypass in India is 98.7 per cent against 97.5 per cent in the U.S.
• India's success in 110 bone marrow transplants is 80 per cent.
• The success rate in 6,000 renal transplants is 95 per cent.
• India has the 2nd highest number of qualified doctors in the world.
• Insurers outsourcing patients
• India attracts international patients from over 50 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Middle-East, Pakistan, Spain, Sri Lanka, UK, USA and Vietnam.
• 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) is being permitted for all health related services under the automatic route by the government of India.

Some of the major hospitals actively known for contributions to the medical tourism industry of India are Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, Apollo Hospitals Group, Wockhardt Hospitals, Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, Ruby Hall Clinic, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Manipal Heart Foundation, Jupiter LifeLine Hospitals, MIOT Hospital etc.

There has been a wide array of policy support in the form of reduction in exercise duties and higher budget allocation for the healthcare sector to develop India as a global healthcare club.

To conclude affordability of treatment is a big encouraging factor since the treatment in India costs just 10-20 per cent of what it costs abroad.

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